


Fish Out of Water

by Dead_Fireflies375



Series: DE Artfest 2020 [2]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Alternate Universe - No Androids (Detroit: Become Human), Angst, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, DEArtfest, F/F, Fluff, Inspired by Octopunk Media's Detroit: Evolution Fan Film, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Slow Burn, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Suicide Attempt, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, like capital S slow burn, listen there is a fine line between angst and fluff and I walk it tediously, no beta we die like men, probably too much fluff for these boys but oh well I want some cute shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:48:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 27,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25167196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dead_Fireflies375/pseuds/Dead_Fireflies375
Summary: Nines has lived his entire life miles underwater. But for the past year, he has been sneaking out to the surface to observe humans. One human, in particular, has caught his eye and after a close encounter with him, Nines decides that he's going to become a human in order to understand better what he feels for this man. But the more time he spends on land with the humans, the more he finds himself wanting to stay. He is now faced with the choice: return home to his family under the sea or remain on land with the new people he cares about.Day 9 of DE Artfest- Mermaid AU
Relationships: Ada (Detroit: Evolution)/North (Detroit: Become Human), Tina Chen (Detroit: Become Human)/Valerie Morales-Chen, Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: DE Artfest 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1814305
Comments: 9
Kudos: 71





	Fish Out of Water

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, y'all!!! Mermaid AUs are my weak spot in any fandom so naturally the second I saw Mermaid AU as one of the prompts for Artfest, I knew I had to do something with it.  
> Now I have never written a Mermaid AU before, so I may have gone a little overboard with developing the lore behind merfolk in this universe lol. This was originally a very loose and basic plot I was trying to write for another fandom like a year ago that just never seemed to work but somehow just exploded with Reed900. Seriously, this prompt single handle cured my writer's block that had been going on forever.
> 
> This is also my first time writing a one-shot story! Pretty much everything I plan out to write is intended to be chaptered so we're on new territory here. And also, I couldn't resist making this much cuter and fluffier than a lot of the stuff I have planned for my other fics for the month. 
> 
> So enjoy this probably too long Mermaid AU that takes place like 80% on land and is essentially just me missing being able to go to the beach. Casual reminder to wear a mask y'all!!!! I want to be able to go places without risking mine and my loved one's personal safety!!!
> 
> Also, just general content warning even though I mentioned it in the tags: there is a discussion of suicide towards the beginning and towards the end of this. It's nothing super explicit and nobody dies, but just be careful y'all and if you need to, scroll past it. It's mainly centered on Gavin's backstory and is also referenced later by Connor in regards to Nines, but you'll still get the full experience of the story if you need to skip those parts.

Nines had never been considered as the rebellious sibling. It was always Connor who defied the age-old traditions of their people. Connor was the one who led the rebellion over the former tyrant of their kingdom. Connor was the one bringing change. Nines was always out of the spotlight, always avoided by everyone. While Connor was leading the rebellion, Nines was in the background, caught in a conflict of interests as he was forced to reevaluate everything he had ever been taught. When Connor was named the new ruler of their kingdom, he made Nines his second in command, but Nines stayed in the shadows. He was quiet and kept to himself most days. Everyone assumed that Nines was just the more obedient version of his brother. He was supposed to be the more composed one, the strong and silent one who was just there to protect Connor, never stepping out of his boundaries, never doing anything wrong.

The ironic thing is that it couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

Perhaps it had been true at one point, but Nines liked to think the part of him that was inclined to rebel had always been within him from the start. However, it was during the rebellion when things really started to change. He and Connor had both been raised in the palace and been taught the lies spread by Amanda, their deposed ruler, and it wasn’t until the rebellion when they both started to really question things. While Connor’s personal revelations had left him believing that the people of their kingdom deserved to be treated better, Nines’ had gone down a different path. Yes, he believed everything his brother preached about equality and justice, but he didn’t stop there. 

You see, their kingdom was located on the bottom of the ocean, miles below the surface, far from anything that lived on land. It had not always been so, their kind once lived near the surface thousands of years ago. But as humans began to live on the shore, it became more and more dangerous for them to live so near. So they went deeper, farther into the water where it was safer. Every single merperson was taught from a young age that approaching the surface was a death sentence. Humans were the center of every horror story. Nobody ever dared to explore the world above their kingdom. That is until Nines.

Nines’ logic was: if everything Amanda had instructed him to believe was a lie, then why should he also obey her rule to not approach the surface? How does he know that wasn’t one of her lies as well? So he snuck out often in order to see this forbidden world they had all been warned of for centuries. His first trip wasn’t eventful, but it was enough to get Nines hooked for life. It was unlike anything he could ever imagine. He was too far out in the water to see any land, but the simple sensation of feeling the sun on his face, air flowing through his body, birds flying up above him- it was all so much to take in at once. And so he made many more trips to the surface. He snuck out every chance he got. People never suspected him and just attributed his standoffish personality as to why they could never seem to find him. He thought about telling Connor, but he decided against it. His older brother had enough on his plate right now.

And then there were the humans. Nines didn’t know what to expect when it came to them. He suspected that a lot of the stories about them had been greatly exaggerated, but he still exercised caution anytime he was near land or a boat. He was surprised at how much they looked like merpeople; they were simply lacking any fins, gills, scales, or a tail. He thought they would look much more monstrous, but they seemed harmless compared to some creatures that lived in the deep. However, one of his visits had nearly ended with him getting caught by a fishing boat, so he was sure to keep his distance. But he still approached the beaches often, wanting to observe how humans interacted with each other. He couldn’t understand what they were saying. An occasional word would sound similar to the language of his people, but never enough for him to actually put together any sentences. And their stuff. So much of it was so different from the things his people had. It was all so much and so full of color. He was utterly enchanted by every faucet of this civilization.

It should be noted that Nines had no interest in becoming human himself. One, it was impossible. And two, he liked being a merperson. But he was curious and liked learning. So he continued to observe and tried to understand these strange and foreign creatures.

Then one day, he discovered a little cove. It was separated from the other areas that the humans gathered at and Nines liked hanging out near there as he didn’t have to be as careful in that place. But then one day,  _ he _ showed up.

Nines had hidden behind some rocks as he watched the humans walk down the steep path into the cove. There were four of them. Two men and two women. But there was only one of them that caught Nines’ attention. One of the men. There was nothing especially unique about him, except for the fact that Nines could not take his eyes off of him. The man’s hair was dark and curly. Human’s hair had always fascinated him as he had never seen hair that wasn’t wet before he went to the surface. It made Nines wonder what his would look like if he was able to let it dry off. But this man’s hair looked almost soft to touch and Nines felt himself wanting to find out himself. The man’s eyes were a piercing green that made Nines shiver. He had always liked the color green. Much of the ocean was colored with it. There was a scar running across the human’s nose and Nines felt him absentmindedly touch the matching spot on his own face. It gave the man a rugged look that Nines had only seen in a handful of merpeople and humans. Nines decided he was quite fond of the look. Then there was the man’s body. That kind of build was not uncommon with merpeople, as their routine of continually swimming under high ocean pressure demanded that they possess a good amount of physical strength. But Nines had discovered that it was not as common among humans. It made Nines curious about the human. He felt the need to get to know him better. Maybe even talk to him.

It was in that moment where Nines suddenly snapped to his senses. What was he thinking? Talking to a human? They didn’t even speak the same language. No, he needed to be more sensible. He was observing humans for his own curiosity and to learn more, contact with humans was out of the question. He had responsibilities back home. His brother was back home. Maybe he should stop observing humans so frequently.

But he stayed by the rocks for several more hours. The four humans appeared to be friends with each other and Nines tried to focus on the other humans, but his eyes kept going back to the man with the scar. He didn’t know why, but he was fascinated by him. He wished to know more about him, more about humans beyond the ocean shore. But he couldn’t. He already knew more about them than the rest of his people. His role as a hidden observer to humans was enough. It’s fine.

It was not fine.

Nines kept finding himself going back to that cove. Sometimes the man was there. Sometimes he wasn’t. The days that he was there, Nines left feeling happy while a pang of disappointment always struck him when the cove was empty. He did his best not to read into it. The amount of time he spent observing the small group of humans meant he started picking up more words of their language. Not enough for him to understand what they were saying, but enough that he was starting to recognize repeat words and phrases. There was a word in particular that Nines kept noticing being directed at the man. “Gavin.” He assumed it must be the man’s name.

“Gavin,” he whispered and smiled. He liked the way his name sounded on his lips.

There were other words he heard them say often. Words like “fuck” and “dipshit”. But he couldn’t discern their meaning yet. Another thing he noticed when he wasn’t focused on Gavin was the two women. The four humans all seemed close to each other, but Nines noticed that the two women exchanged signs of affection that weren't shared with the other humans. Nines recognized some of them as things merpeople did who were in love. He theorized that it must be the same for humans. He watched the two women intertwine their hands when they stood next to each other. He stared at his own hand. He tried to intertwine his fingers with his other hand, but the webbing between his fingers prevented it. What would it be like to not have this webbing, he wondered. How it would feel for someone to intertwine their fingers with his own. How Gavin’s hand would-

What the hell was he thinking? What does it matter what Gavin’s hand feels like? It’s not relevant and not something he needs to be thinking about. Those were things people thought when they were attracted to someone. When they felt affection towards someone. And Nines didn’t feel that. He never had. Prior to the rebellion, it wasn’t an option, but even now that they were all free, he still had never felt it. He knew Connor felt it. They never discussed it together, but Nines could tell. He could read his brother better than anyone and could tell that his brother deeply cared for others in ways Nines didn’t. Nines may be breaking the most ancient and strict rule of their people on the daily, but he still viewed himself as being sensible. If Connor came to the surface, he would have been caught in minutes because he didn’t have the extra layers of caution that Nines had. Attraction wasn’t sensible. Attraction to humans wasn’t even a possibility. No. This was nothing. Nines felt nothing but pure curiosity towards humans.

Even so, when one of the women kissed the other on the cheek, Nines felt his hand going to touch the same spot of his own face, wondering what it would feel for Gavin to do that to him.

He had observed them quietly for almost a year now. He had noticed a bit of a schedule to the humans’ trips to the cove. It wasn’t exact, but it was fairly reliable. Nines could say with a good amount of confidence that Gavin and his friends would not be at the cove today.

It’s not like Nines was thinking about Gavin often or anything. No, he was staying purely focused on learning more about humans for his own curiosity’s sake. And he was definitely not thinking about Gavin’s eyes when he practically ran into Connor.

“Nines! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“Is something wrong?”

“What? No, of course not. I just want to spend some time with my little brother,” Connor responded but Nines could tell something was off. “I feel like I hardly see you anymore. Just want to, you know, make sure you’re doing alright.”

“I’m perfectly fine, Connor.”

“‘Course you are,” Connor mumbled, “Just checking in, you know. I’ve been so busy with everything and I wanted to make sure you’re doing okay.”

Nines could tell something else was going on.

“Connor, what’s this actually about?”

Connor worried his lower lip and then grabbed Nines’ arm and started leading him towards his bedroom. Nines let himself get pulled along as it was rare to see his brother get this upset over anything. Connor pulled him into his bedroom and looked around cautiously.

“I think Amanda might be coming back,” he practically whispered.

“What? Connor, you banished her from here. You’re the most powerful merperson to ever live. Nobody could break your banishment spell.”

“Second most powerful,” Connor bitterly muttered.

Nines didn’t respond to that. The two brothers had been thoroughly reminded by Amanda growing up who was the strongest, the fastest, the most talented. Connor may be king, but they both knew if they ever had to fight each other, which one of them would walk away the winner.

“Where were you during the rebellion?” Connor asked after a few beats of silence.

“What?”

“The rebellion. I don’t remember you fighting with us. What were you doing then?”

“I wasn’t doing anything. I was having a fucking identity crisis over learning everything I had ever been taught my whole life was a lie. While also having to deal with the fact that my brother abandoned me here with her.” Nines knew that the last line was a low blow. When Connor decided to switch sides in the fight, he simply disappeared and Nines was left alone. He knew Connor felt guilty for doing that, but he also knew that Connor knew that this line of questioning was getting dangerously close to things Nines didn’t want to remember.

“I didn’t want to leave you,” Connor quietly responded.

“Yeah, but you did. Doesn’t matter now though. If you didn’t escape when you did, the rebellion would have failed and Amanda would still be here.”

Connor sighed and flung himself onto his bed.

“Are we friends, Nines?”

“What are you talking about? You’re my brother.”

“I know, but are we friends? Sometimes I feel like I hardly know you. Like nothing has changed from before.”

“A lot has changed from before. I’m not the same person I was then. You know that.”

“Do I? We hardly talk anymore. I have no idea what you’re thinking or feeling most of the time. Let alone where you are. You’re never here. I keep making excuses to others as to why they can’t find you anywhere but I don’t even know where you are!”

“Connor, are you … do you think I’m working with Amanda?”

Connor didn’t respond. That was more than enough for Nines to know what his answer was.

“What the fuck, Connor? After everything, she’s done to us. To me. You really think I would willingly go back and work for her?”

“I just- it took you a while before you started fighting against her.”

“Yeah, cause I was fucking brainwashed! We both were! We both did horrible and evil things to people because we didn’t know any better. But we’re different now. I’m different now.”

“I know- I just … you’re never here. And I’m worried, okay? And, shit, you’re the commander of our entire armed forces. What’s going to happen if something bad happens and you’re not here? What then?”

“Nothing bad is going to happen! There hasn’t been an attack since Amanda left. I don’t have to be here all the time.”

“Well maybe if you just said where you were going …”

“What? So you could track me too? Keep tabs on me at all times like her?”

“Nines, you know that’s not what I meant.”

“I just- I want to be my own person for once in my life. I didn’t get to escape like you did. Just because I’m not spending time with people every second of the day like you, doesn’t mean I’m some traitor.”

“Nines-” his brother started.

“Forget it. I’m leaving. Don’t really like my own brother accusing me of treason,” Nines said as he stormed away.

“Nines! Wait! I’m sorry!” he heard Conner call out.

Nines didn’t turn around and swam out of the palace. Even if Connor was going to try to follow him, Nines knew that he was faster. He didn’t want to talk to his brother right now. He may have made some good points about Nines’ frequent absence, but he also brought up things they had silently agreed to never bring up again. Nines didn’t want to deal with Connor forcing bad memories to the forefront of his mind.

He didn’t realize where he was going until he got there. It was the cove. Night had already fallen and the sky was lit up by the stars. Nines didn’t expect Gavin to be at the cove at this hour, but as he approached, he noticed a lone figure sitting by themselves on the beach. He approached slowly and hid behind one of the nearby rocks and tried to get a better look.

It was Gavin. Nines had never seen him by himself before or at night. He had some stick between his lips that was lit. Nines had seen him with them before, but he still hadn’t worked out what they were or what function they serve. There were empty bottles surrounding him. Gavin’s head was in his hands and Nines could tell something wasn’t right. He had never seen Gavin act like this before during the times he had spied on him. Nines felt worry creep inside of him. What was Gavin doing?

Suddenly, Gavin stood up. Nines was able to get a better look at his face. His eyes were different. They were red and had dark circles under them. His face also looked wet. Nines didn’t quite understand it, but he had seen a few humans do it before and it didn’t seem like a good sign. Gavin stared at the dark waves crashing on the beach for a bit. Nines could feel the current pick up and the water become more fierce. He could withstand it no problem, but he knew humans weren’t as adept at swimming as he was. He really hoped that Gavin wasn’t going to go into the water.

He heard Gavin mutter “fuck it,” one of the few human phrases he knew pretty well now, and then Gavin walked over to the rocks on the other side of the cove.

The rocks on that side of the cove were connected to the beach so it was possible for the humans to walk on them from the land to a bit farther out in the water. Nines had watched Gavin and his friends do that several times. But this time, Gavin was alone. And he wasn’t walking very steadily. He kept slipping on the rocks. Every time he did, Nines had to physically restrain himself from rushing over to help him. He could feel the jagged sides of the rock cut into his hands as he gripped it with fear. Gavin made it to the furthermost rock that was in reach and stood straight up on it, staring straight into the black sea.

He saw Gavin take a deep breath and he started to speak. Nines didn’t know what he was saying, but Gavin looked upset. As he kept talking, Nines could tell he was getting more and more worked up. His voice got louder and faster and he started waving his hands around more frequently. Nines felt helpless watching him. He clearly needed help, but Nines was powerless to do anything. Eventually, Gavin paused and then something Nines was able to understand.

“So fuck you, fuck you, and fuck you. I’m done with this.”

The ocean grew in power as the current became stronger and all Nines could do was watch. Watch as a look of relief crossed Gavin’s face. Watch as he jumped off the rock. Watch as the waves immediately overtook him and he disappeared under the water.

Nines wasn’t thinking anymore. He reacted on pure instinct as he plunged under himself and swam as fast as he could over to Gavin. Luckily for him, all merpeople were equipped with the ability to see in the dark. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have seen Gavin’s limp body sinking towards the ocean floor. He sped as fast as he could towards him and the second he was in arms reach, he grabbed a hold of him and pulled him up. He knew humans needed the air to breathe so held Gavin’s head above the water the second they breached the surface. But Gavin’s eyes were shut and his body was limp. Nines then saw what was going to be the biggest challenge: getting Gavin to land. The waves were strong and choppy, which wouldn’t have been a problem for Nines if he wasn’t also holding a human who needed air to breathe.

He did his best to go forward, but it was difficult. He couldn’t keep Gavin’s head consistently above water. He didn’t know the limitations of the human body so he hoped and prayed that the waves that crashed over them as they made their way to land were not enough to kill Gavin. It took every muscle in his body to continue pulling Gavin to shore till eventually, he was able to let the waves wash them up onto land. Nines did his best to push Gavin more onto land and less in the sphere of the waves, but that was hard to do with no legs. Finally, Nines got Gavin far enough out that he felt like the human was safe.

“Gavin? Gavin!” Nines called to him, gripping his face in his hands as he did, “Gavin!”

But nothing happened. Gavin’s eyes were still shut and his body felt like a dead weight. Nines couldn’t accept that Gavin was gone. But he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to help humans. So he did the only thing he could think of in the moment and grabbed Gavin by the shoulders and started shaking him.

“Come on, Gavin!” Nines pleaded as he continued to try to shake him awake. Anything for him to just wake up.

Suddenly, Gavin’s body jerked on its own and the next thing Nines knew, Gavin was coughing up water. Nines sighed in relief as Gavin hacked up the remaining water in his lungs. When he got most of it out, he fell back into the sand and slowly blinked his eyes open.

“What … the fuck?” he was able to mumble out as he tried to focus on Nines leaning over him.

It was at that moment where Nines started thinking again. And he realized what position he was in. There was a human right underneath him. Before Gavin could say or do anything else, Nines practically shot off him and flung himself back into the sea, swimming as fast away as he possibly could. It was only after he was confident he was too far away to be caught did he stop and think had just happened.

He had touched a human. He had touched Gavin. He hadn’t felt the same as other merpeople. Similar, but different. He had held Gavin’s face in his hands. He had been right up and close to his green eyes. It was utterly terrifying. And yet Nines felt himself longing to do it again.

There was no denying it anymore. The way he felt about Gavin, it was different than anything he had felt before. He didn’t know what it was about the human, but the way his heart fluttered and the warm pit in his stomach were both new sensations for Nines to experience. And he found himself quite fond of the feeling.

There was only one way to deal with this.

All merpeople were capable of magic to some extent. In terms of sheer power, Nines and Connor were the most powerful. Amanda had taken advantage of that and manipulated them into doing horrible things with it. But with all of their power, there were just some kinds of magic that they were never taught and were incapable of doing. But there were others who could. That is why Nines found himself at North’s door.

North had fought in the rebellion right at the front with Connor, but they weren’t especially close. She had just wanted the ability to live a life of freedom and happiness so she decided to not take part in any of the palace or government life. She would occasionally drop by, but it wasn’t like she and Connor were anything more than polite acquaintances. Which is why Nines chose her to go to for help. He knew her brand of magic was more geared towards the feeling side of things. He had never bothered to look into exactly what it entailed, but he figured if anyone would know what to do, it would be her.

“Nines? What are you doing here?” she asked as she opened the door.

“I need a favor.”

“What do you need?”

Nines looked around. This was a busy area and there were lots of people nearby who could overhear what he was saying.

“Can I come in? It’s, uhm, personal.”

She raised an eyebrow at that but let him in nonetheless.

“So what does the second most powerful person in the kingdom need with me?” she asked after the door shut.

“I need your help and I didn’t know who else to ask.”

“What about Connor? He can’t help you?”

“No, I-I can’t tell him about this.”

“This isn’t something illegal is it?”

“What? Oh, no, not at all. I just-” he sighed, “I think I have feelings for someone.”

North started laughing. “Oh god, Nines, why didn’t you open with that? I was so worried you were going to ask me to help with some coup. Yeah, I can help you. What do you need?”

“I just don’t know what to do.”

“Okay. Some advice. I can do that. Now it would help if I knew who it was. Is it Markus? Simon? Oh, god, it’s not me, is it?”

“What? No! No. It’s definitely not you. Or any of them.”

“Then who is it?”

“I, uhm, I don’t think you would know them.”

“Try me. I know nearly everyone around through one way or another.”

“His name is … his name is Gavin.”

“Gavin, huh? Doesn’t sound familiar. What does he look like?”

“He’s human,” Nines quickly replied before he could lose his nerve.

There was a deafening silence between them. Nines kept his eyes firmly trained onto the ground, absolutely terrified.

“A human, huh? Well, I get the feeling that you’ll need a bit more than advice then.”

“Huh? You’re not surprised?”

“Well shit Nines, yeah I’m kinda surprised that the second in command of our kingdom showed up to my door confessing his love for a human when it’s illegal for us to approach the surface, but that doesn’t mean I don’t know a thing or two that could help you.”

“You do? How?”

“Didn’t you come to me for help? Surely you shouldn’t be surprised that I actually can help you.”

“I know, I just- You really can help me?”

“Of course I can. Do you really think that you were the first merperson to break the rule about approaching the surface?”

“Uhm… yeah?”

“Well, you’re not. Very few have. But enough. And I may happen to know some magic that can help you.”

“Help me, how?”

“Turn you into a human, of course.”

Nines scoffed. “You can’t turn me into a human.”

“Oh, I can’t?” North questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Of course not. That’s impossible. … Right? You can’t just, turn me into a human, can you? That’s not a thing, is it?”

“There is a lot you don’t know,” North answered smiling.

“So we can do this the easy way, or the hard way,” North explained.

They were in one of her back rooms. The walls were covered with spell components and other trinkets. Nines recognized some, but there were several that he had never seen before.

“What’s the difference?”

“Well, the easy way is that I can make you a locket. This locket will grant you the ability to become a human if you wear it. You will then return to being a merperson when you take it off. But this is a one time offer. Once you take it off, you can’t put it back on and I can’t redo it. You get one chance to be a human as long as you want, experience whatever you want, and then come back whenever you want.”

“But it’s only once? I can’t turn back again.”

“Nope. Once you decide to return to the sea, that’s it. No more legs. Unless…”

“Unless?”

“You do it the hard way. The ability to shift between both forms is only caused by the act of true love’s kiss.”

Nines scoffed again.

“What? It’s true. If you can find a human who falls in love with you of their own free will and then kisses you, again only out of their free will, you will have the ability to switch between merperson and human. The reason that it’s so hard is that you have to find someone who will completely and utterly love you and chooses to do so. It’s not exactly common.”

“But I can’t be a human before the kiss if I don’t use the locket?”

“Correct.”

“The locket it is then.”

Nines was holding the locket as tightly as he could in one hand while he wrote a goodbye note to Connor in the other. He considered telling Connor what he was doing or saying goodbye in person. But he knew that Connor would try to stop him and he was still upset about their earlier argument. So he snuck in the palace to leave a note letting them know he was leaving. It’s not like it was going to be forever. It’ll just be like a very long vacation.

He had made North swear under an oath that she would not reveal his secret. Just in case. No matter what happens, the magic oath made it impossible for her to tell Connor where he went, only he could do that. Made things a lot easier this way.

The note was simple and to the point. All it said was: 

“ _ I’m sorry, Connor, for everything. I’ve been in denial for a while now, but I know what I need to do. I wish I could have been a better brother, as you were the best brother I could have asked for. Don’t miss me too much, we’ll be reunited again one day. This won’t be forever.  _

_ Your brother,  _

_ Nines. _ ”

Before he could second guess his actions, he was gone.

Washing up onto the cove this time was different than the last. Different mainly because this time he was the one coughing up water. It was so strange. The water that he lived his entire life in now burned his throat, mouth, and nose. His whole body had burned when his form had changed. Once he stopped coughing, he pushed himself up and looked at his left hand. The webbing was gone. The fins on his arms were gone. The scales that were splattered in certain places were gone too. He didn’t know how long he stared at his left hand, completely captivated by how human it was. He moved on to inspect the rest of his body. There were no more gills in his side, just a solid torso. His mouth felt emptier and he ran his tongue across smaller and duller teeth. And then he saw his legs.

A merperson’s tail was their pride and joy. A well-maintained tail spoke volumes about the merperson without them having to say a single word. Nines had always liked his tail. Strong and blue, it was something to be envied. But now there were just legs. He noticed that he seemed to have some blue shorts on and it was an odd sensation. That kind of material wasn’t used for garments underwater. As he looked and ran his hands up and down his legs, learning these new features, he realized that he was going to have to learn to walk. It shouldn’t be too hard right? He had seen very small humans walk at the beach before. Surely he could, as he was much bigger and stronger than them.

Apparently he could not, as he fell into the sand yet again. He had quickly discovered that standing, let alone walking was much harder than he originally thought. He barely made it a few steps before falling over. But he kept trying. After what felt like hours, he finally seemed to get the hang of it.

Now that he was able to move around, he had a job to do. North hadn’t sent him to land empty-handed. She assured him that she knew of a human who could help him. She didn’t explain how she knew the human, but she said to follow the signs and then ask for Ada. Once he managed to climb up the very steep path, he was on the lookout.

The cove was a little way out from the main town so he had to walk past the empty road. It was nice, as it allowed him to have more walking practice before he was going to have to walk through the crowds of people he saw not too far ahead. He used the opportunity to take in all the sights around him, the aspects of land he had never seen before. There was just so much to look at all at once. There was one thing he didn’t like though. The more he walked, the more his feet began to feel hot and hurt. The ground wasn’t exactly comfortable to stand on either. As he got closer to other humans, he noticed that most of them had something covering their feet. He made a mental note to get one of those as soon as he could once he found Ada.

To his dismay, the locket did nothing when it came to helping him understand the human’s language. There were still the handful of words and phrases he knew, but he was far from confident to speak it. All the things surrounding him were covered with their script on it. It was a lot different from the script his people used, but it looked much simpler. He hoped that Ada would be easy to find.

After wandering for a bit, he finally found it. There was a large mural on one of the walls. It was quite beautiful and abstract. It also had the merperson runes for “continue this way for Ada” written dead in the center. Starting from there, Nines was able to follow the path through several winding streets, all adorned with various paintings marked with his people’s writings. At last, he found it. It was a small shop. There was something written in the human language above it, but directly under it read “come here if you need Ada.”

He pushed the door open and looked inside. The building was full of art, much of it focused on the beach, but there was a lot of variety. The store was empty save for one person. It was a woman with extremely light hair and pale skin. She said something to Nines but he couldn’t understand her.

“Are you, Ada?” he asked, hoping at the very least she could help him find her.

Immediately the woman’s demeanor changed.

“North sent you?” she replied back in his language.

Nines nodded. “She said you could help me.”

“Well, you’re in luck. Any friend of North is a friend of mine. I’ll help you with whatever you need.”

It took almost a month of Ada giving Nines lessons in how to be a human before he felt confident enough to work in the shop. Ada had taught Nines how to speak in the human’s language (he learned it was called English) and taught him about human culture. She explained to him all the basics and introduced him to movies, which she had him watch while she was busy with work. He was a very quick learner and was able to master things at a much quicker rate than had been expected. By the end of the month, Ada decided that he was more than ready to begin working in her store.

Ada (and now Nines) lived in the upstairs apartment to her store. She ran an art supplies store that also doubled as an art studio. In addition, it seemed like a very popular place for the locals to hang out as it was right next to a coffee shop. Ada seemed to know a lot of people and there were usually a few people hanging out downstairs. Ada didn’t explain how she knew his language or North, and Nines didn’t ask. She had already done so much for him, he decided he could wait to hear her story.

But he was very excited to begin working. Ada was the only human he had really met at this point. Now that he was confident he could get through a conversation without messing up, he couldn’t wait to get better at acting human. Gavin had been at the forefront of his mind the entire month and he couldn’t wait to try to find him again.

That task ended up being easier than expected as on his third day working in the store, one of the women who Gavin was friends with walked through the door. She was short with dark hair and paler skin, however, her cheeks and nose were bright red from the sun. She gave him a curious glance as she walked in.

“Are you new here? Where’s Ada?”

Nines was ready with an answer. He and Ada had gone over their cover story many times.

“I’m one of Ada’s friends from college. Just moved out here from Detroit a couple weeks ago. I’m staying with her and helping out in the shop. She’s busy right now with a new piece but if you need any help, I can help you.”

“That explains why I haven’t seen you here before. Me and my friends drop in here often but we’ve been swamped with work for the past few weeks so we haven’t been able to catch a break,” she smiled and stuck out her hand, “I’m Tina, by the way.”

“Nines,” he replied as he went to shake her hand.

“Nines? Haven’t heard that one before.”

Good thing Ada prepped him for this one too.

“College nickname. Wasn’t a fan of my real name and it ended up sticking. You’d have to ask Ada for the origins, I don’t remember.”

“Well, it’s great to meet you, Nines. My friend Gavin will be here in a couple minutes. I sent him to get our coffee,” she explained as she went to sit at one of the tables that people hung out at.

Nines’ heart stopped. Was Gavin actually going to show up, like right now? Nines was in no way prepared to face the man that he had come to land for. A million possible scenarios ran through his head about how the next ten minutes could end in disaster. In an effort to distract himself, he started reorganizing the shelves. Everything was going to be fine. Besides, if his feelings go away once he meets Gavin properly, he can still go back home. He hasn’t committed himself to anything yet. He’s fine.

All that courage he had built up into himself faded when he heard the door open and a familiar voice start talking.

“Sorry, it took so long, Tina, you wouldn’t believe that line. I swear half the fucking town was there like who the hell … would uh …” Gavin trailed off as he made eye contact with Nines.

Nines was frozen in place. Did Gavin remember their last encounter? What parts did he remember? Was his cover blown already? Shit, Nines was in trouble, this was all a mistake, what is he doing here.

“Gav? My coffee?” Tina asked, snapping them both back into reality.

“Oh yeah right. Anyways half the fucking town was there it was crazy,” Gavin continued sitting across from Tina and handing her the drink.

Luckily, Nines was saved by the presence of some customers looking to buy Ada’s art so he could effectively ignore Gavin. He was definitely going to try and talk to him and get to know him better. But he hadn’t anticipated doing that today.

When the customers had finished their purchase, Gavin and Tina were still seated at the table. A few more of Ada’s regulars had shown up, but Nines didn’t pay attention to them. No, he was too busy trying to sneak glances at Gavin without the benefit of hiding behind a rock and being 90% under the water.

“Hey Nines, can you come over here?” Tina called out.

Nines cautiously approached and he and Gavin both made an effort not to look at each other.

“How much of town have you gotten to see since you’ve been here?” she asked once he walked over.

“Not much. I’ve been busy settling in with Ada.”

“That’s what I thought. If you’re free tonight, we could maybe show you around a bit. Gavin’s free tonight if that’s an incentive.”

At that, Gavin choked on his coffee and gave Tina a very pointed glare, which she ignored.

“Uh, yeah. I’m free. I’d love to.”

“Great!” Tina beamed, “When do you get off work?”

“I get off at five.”

“Perfect! It’s a date! Well, at least for Gavin it is.”

That earned her another glare coupled with the middle finger, which Tina ignored once again, standing up and grabbing her empty coffee cup.

“See you in a couple hours then, Nines. Tell Ada I said hi and that I can’t wait to see her next piece,” Tina said as she walked out. Gavin quickly followed her out, making zero eye contact.

Nines took a minute to sit down at the table and tried to process the past few events that had just transpired. It was all happening much faster than Nines had originally anticipated.

“Is everything alright?” he heard Ada ask.

She walked in from the back, a few blue paint smears on her arms and clothes.

“Yeah, I-uh- I just got invited to go out to town tonight with Tina and Gavin.”

“That sounds nice. Tina and Valerie are a sweet couple. I’m sad I missed them,” she paused, “is there something else?”

“Gavin is the person I came up to land for,” he whispered so the other patrons couldn’t hear.

“Really? Hmm. Gavin? Gavin Reed? Him?”

“Yes. Him. Is there something wrong?”

“No. But … Gavin? We are talking about Tina’s best friend, Gavin Reed? The one with a scar on his nose?”

“That’s him.”

“Really? Interesting. I wouldn’t have … well, I hope you have fun tonight. You’re definitely knowledgeable enough to handle your own out there. I’m sure you’ll be able to handle yourself well. You’re insanely smart and have picked up on this far faster than I expect anyone else would. But … Gavin Reed, though?”

“Is that a problem?”

“No. I’m just surprised. Have a lovely evening tonight.”

When 5 o’clock rolled around, Tina showed up with the other woman Nines had seen previously at the cove, whom he assumed was her wife Valerie. They both waved at him from the other side of the glass door. Ada gave him a thumbs up and he went out to join them. Gavin was standing a few feet away from the couple and was finishing a cigarette (Nines had finally learned what those were called.)

“Nines! This is my wife Valerie!” Tina exclaimed as she gestured to the woman standing next to her, “you’ve already met Gavin,” she continued, to which Gavin only gave a nod of acknowledgment, “Usually we’d have our friend Chris here with us but he’s on babysitter duty tonight. His wife works weekends so he has to keep an eye on their son Damien if he can’t find a sitter. Speaking of which, Damien is so adorable. I’ll have to show you pictures when we get there.”

“Where exactly are we going?”

“Oh! Right. Since you’re new in town, there’s this small local place you have to try out. It’ll be the best experience of your life. And that is a Tina Chen guarantee.”

Tina and Valerie began heading off in the direction of the restaurant. The streets were a bit busy with the evening traffic so the sidewalks were only wide enough for two of them to walk next to each at a time. Tina and Valerie took the lead. Nines didn’t miss the way Tina not so sneakily practically shoved Gavin back to force him to stand next to Nines or the series of looks the duo shared in a silent conversation. Nines couldn’t keep up exactly what transpired between them, but he got the vibe that Tina had won whatever that confrontation was and that Gavin was not exactly pleased about losing.

“So, uh… have we met before?” Gavin finally asked Nines. 

It took Nines by surprise. It was the first time Gavin had directly spoken to him today.

“It’s just uh, you kinda look familiar. Don’t why. Just feel like we may have bumped into each other somewhere. Probably nothing,” Gavin continued.

Gavin had seen Nines before, but that was before Nines had a human body. And he had been warned by Ada to not let others know about the existence of merfolk. She said that she only knew of their existence through knowing North, and the vast majority of humans believed them to be a myth. So Nines definitely didn’t want to remind Gavin of their first meeting.

“No, I don’t think so. I haven’t been here very long and I’ve spent most of that time with Ada. Probably confusing me with someone else.”

“That’s what I thought,” Gavin huffed. “Knew it was a damn hallucination,” Gavin added under his breath.

Gavin didn’t say anything else for the rest of their walk to the restaurant. Nines saw Tina and Valerie intertwine their fingers like he did before. This time when he went to copy the movement with his own hands, there was no webbing stopping him from doing it. He smiled. It was a nice feeling. He wondered what if it would feel different if he did it with Gavin’s hand instead his own. It wasn’t a long walk and soon Nines saw the place in question. It already looked to be pretty busy despite the time.

“Don’t worry, I’m friends with the owner. I can get us seats quick,” Valerie informed Nines as they approached the restaurant.

Sure enough, in a matter of minutes, the four of them were being sat at a booth that had a view of the ocean. Nines witnessed another one of Tina and Gavin’s silent conversations through a series of glares and pointed looks. The outcome of this one seemed to be the same as the last, with Tina smiling as she slid in next to her wife while Gavin begrudgingly took his seat next to Nines. The booth itself was relatively small but Gavin made an extra effort to maintain as much distance between them. Nines was discovering that the more he was around Gavin, the less he understood about him. His heart was doing the thing again. He really wanted to know more about Gavin.

“So Nines,” Tina started once the waiter had taken their orders, “why’d you decide to leave Detroit?”

“Got sick of the cold. I wanted something different,” Nines replied, Ada had picked Detroit to be his city of origin as she used to live there and was able to give him a crash course on what to say if he was asked about it.

“Well, you came to the right place,” Valerie informed him, “don’t think we’ve ever gotten snow here. And thank god for that.”

“Got any family back home?”

“Just my brother, Connor. He’s barely a year older than me, most people think that we’re twins.”

“I remember when my younger sister got up and moved across the country. Missed her like hell even though I’d never say it to her face,” Tina commented, “Is your brother planning on coming out to visit you while you’re here.”

“Probably,” Nines lied.

“Great! Well when he comes, you already know where you have to take him to eat.”

As their food arrived, Nines found himself to be distracted as Tina and Valerie’s questions for him were paused while they ate. He’d tried not to think about Connor over the past month. Their relationship had always been … different. Amanda hadn’t allowed them to have a normal sibling relationship. Always pitting them against each other, always training. With her gone, they had tried to rebuild their relationship. Both of them had been trying to repair things in their own way, but some past memories are too hard to let go. Despite this, Nines was more than willing to do anything to protect Connor if need be and he knew Connor would do the same for him. But after their last argument and a month apart, Nines didn’t know where he would stand with his brother once he returned.

Return. He had to remember that. This wasn’t going to be a permanent thing. He came to land to learn more about humans and to deal with his feelings for Gavin Reed. He wasn’t a human and he had no intention of pretending to be one forever. But he may have to if Gavin kept avoiding conversations with him.

“You know, Gavin likes cats,” Tina brought up once they were finishing up their food, “Do you like cats, Nines?”

“I haven’t really spent much time with them before. But I’d like to.” Nines had been taught by Ada about common land animals. He’d met a few dogs who passed by Ada’s place, but he had yet to meet a cat in person.

“Gavin! Show Nines a picture of your cat!” Tina encouraged him.

Gavin rolled his eyes a bit and pulled out his phone. He opened it and pulled up a picture of a fluffy black and white cat sleeping on the couch. He showed it to Nines, leaning in a little when he did.

“They look adorable,” Nines commented as he got a better look at the cat. He didn’t have a large database to compare it to other cats but he decided that he liked the cat.

“Yeah, real adorable,” Gavin scoffed, “You haven’t had the bastard jumping on your bed at the crack of dawn demanding to be fed.”

Nines smiled. “What’s their name?”

“His name is Asshole,” Gavin responded. When Nines only shot him a raised eyebrow at the odd choice of a name, he clarified with “Technically, his legal name is Dimple. That’s what it was at the shelter. But he only responds to being called Asshole. Serves him right too. Can’t get a moment of privacy in my own house. Little fucker is like a magnet.”

“That doesn’t sound too unpleasant.”

“Yeah well, he isn’t exactly lightweight. If he falls asleep on you, you better get comfortable cause you’re not moving anywhere till he wakes up.”

“He sounds like quite the character. I’d love to get to meet him.”

It was then when Nines and Gavin simultaneously became acutely aware of Tina and Valerie watching them with smiles on their faces. Nines realized that the space between the two of them had shrunk while they were talking, and once Gavin made the same realization, he quickly did what he could to remedy that and moved back to his original position, his cheeks quite flushed. 

The conversation continued with Tina and Valerie swapping anecdotes, mainly ones featuring Gavin despite his protests. By the time they were leaving the restaurant, Gavin and Tina were trying to out-do each other with who could come up with the most embarrassing story of each other. Nines smiled to himself. Such moments of domesticity between friends were unfamiliar to Nines. There wasn’t any of that growing up and after they took control, Nines couldn't adapt in the same way Connor did. There was so much history surrounding him back home that it felt like he would never be free. But here, these people knew nothing about him. Nines watched as Tina nearly doubled over with laughter as Gavin brought up their high school dance, having to stop in the middle of the sidewalk. Gavin was leaned against the streetlamp, trying to continue recounting the events of the night but struggling to hold back his laughter. Nines decided he rather liked the sound of Gavin’s laughter.

They continued on, Tina and Valerie pointing out specific stores and locations that they insisted Nines go to some time as they led him to quote “the best bar in town.” Nines didn’t really know what to expect. He hadn’t tried alcohol before and his knowledge base on the topic was very limited. There were similar concepts of drinks like those for merfolk, but he wasn’t sure how much overlap there would be. Even if there was, it’s not like he had a ton of experience with the merfolk equivalent. So when they entered the dark and slightly cramped bar, Nines was quite literally a fish out of water.

Valerie was able to flag them down a booth that they all squeezed into again. Nines found himself next to Gavin again, but this booth was even more cramped than the last. Physical contact was pretty damn hard to avoid, but Nines wasn’t going to cause a fuss over it.

“I know what they want, but what do you want Nines?” Valerie asked as she went to go grab them drinks.

Nines blanked. Ada had not gone into a ton of details about the names of human alcoholic beverages, so he had no point of reference.

“Uh, whatever you recommend. You know what’s good here better than I do.”

“Got it,” Valerie replied with a smile.

She returned with their drinks. Three of them looked to be normal drinks, but the one that Valerie handed Nines was bright blue and topped with a lime.

“House special,” she explained when Nines gave her a confused look, “One of the best damn margaritas on this side of the country.”

Nines cautiously sipped it. It was quite good at first but then- oh.

“That bad, huh?” he heard Gavin chuckle.

“I don’t really drink alcohol frequently,” Nines tried to explain, hoping that was a believable excuse as to why he wouldn’t like the drink’s flavor.

“It’s an acquired taste,” Tina explained as she drank her drink, apparently unfazed by the flavor of hers. “Though it all starts to taste better the more you drink.”

Tina and Valerie went through their drinks noticeably quicker than Nines and Gavin were, especially since Nines was avoiding his. It wasn’t long before Valerie was dragging her wife out to the dancefloor with her. With just the two of them in the booth, there wasn’t much of an excuse as to why they would have to be pressed up next to each other so Nines, albeit reluctantly, scooted over some. Despite his better judgment, he went in for a second taste of his drink. Much to his dismay, the bitter aftertaste of what would have otherwise been a nice drink, had not improved over time.

“Don’t know why I expected it to be different the second time around,” Nines muttered with disappointment,

“The taste of it is only the second most important thing about alcohol. More people care about how wasted they can get with it,” Gavin explained with a shrug, slightly smiling.

“What are you drinking?” Nines asked.

“Oh, this?” Gavin said holding up his half-empty drink, “A rum and coke. Except minus the rum. So just your normal everyday soda.” Nines must have looked confused because Gavin went on to explain. “Don’t really drink alcohol much either. Never got past the taste. Besides, I’ve already got one habit that can kill me, don’t need two,” he added and he pulled out one of his cigarettes and lit it.

Nines thought back to that time on the beach. Gavin had been drinking something, and those bottles matched up to a lot of the bottles he saw in here. He wanted to ask more about it, but as far as Gavin was concerned, today was their first meeting. Nines didn’t want to arouse suspicion. 

“Hey, can I buy you a drink?” a voice came from Nines’ right.

There was a young man standing to the side of their booth. He was leaning against it, looking at Nines with a smile and a wink. Nines looked back to his already still quite full drink that he was not keen on finishing.

“No thanks. I’m good,” Nines replied, not wanting to have another bitter drink to be responsible for.

“Well in that case, can I get your number?” the man persisted.

“I, uh-” Nines tried to remember if Ada had mentioned anything about humans having numbers, “I don’t … I don’t have a phone?”

The man raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t have a phone? That’s, uhm… okay, well what about dancing?”

“I really don’t dance either.”

“Well how about we skip the formalities and just head back to my place?”

Nines could think of many reasons why that was not something he would not want to do.

“Uh, not really? Sorry.”

The man looked upset and walked away with a huff. Gavin started laughing and Nines returned his attention to him.

“Damn. Never took you for the heartbreaker type.”

Nines raised an eyebrow.

“Heartbreaker?”

“I mean if he had approached me, I would have shot him down from the get-go, but that’s cause I’m a dick. Drunk one night stands really lose their appeal the older you get.”

Nines processed what Gavin said. He would be lying if he said that he hadn’t been confused about the man’s intentions. But given Gavin’s comment and his limited frame of reference to human interpersonal relationships, he could guess at what was being implied by the offer to go home with the man. It was one of the things that he learned about through some of the movies he had watched. He didn’t really see the appeal. Merpeople didn’t have an equivalent to the human act.

“Well, I wasn’t interested in what he was offering anyways. Might as well be upfront about it.”

Gavin paused. “Not interested in him? Or not interested in men?”

“Not interested in sex in general,” Nines clarified.

“Ah, well that’s valid too,” Gavin nodded, “Shit’s kinda overrated in all honesty. Usually ends up being more trouble than it’s worth.”

Before they could continue the conversation, Tina came over.

“Nines! Come on, come dance with us!” she exclaimed as she pulled at his arm.

“Oh, I don't-”

“Come on,” she continued, “It’ll be fun.”

“Better just go along with it,” Gavin advised, “Tina can be quite persistent.”

Nines let Tina guide him on the dance floor where Valerie was waiting for them. Nines was completely out of his element here. He had only recently gotten the hang of his human body, he definitely wasn’t prepared for this. However, Tina and Valerie were more than okay with guiding him through how to dance. Besides, it wasn’t like people were paying close attention. Well, for the most part. Nines did catch Gavin looking in his direction a few times.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur. Tina and Valerie got progressively more drunk as the night went on while trying to rope Nines and Gavin into their drunken shenanigans. The two didn’t get another moment alone, but Nines was content with just watching Gavin enjoy himself with his friends. He wondered if this was all something distinctly human, or if he had just missed this aspect of life before. Either way, he was enjoying himself more that night than he had at any other point in his life.

It was late now. The four of them were standing outside the bar. Well Nines and Gavin were standing. Tina and Valerie were practically leaning on Gavin for support as he tried to call them a cab. When a cab did finally show up, Gavin helped his inebriated friends into the car.

“So, uhm, I should probably make sure these two get home safe,” Gavin explained, standing at the car door, “Think you can make your way back home from here?”

“Yeah, it’s not too far. I know the way back.”

“Ok, well, uh, don’t get murdered or some shit,” Gavin advised as he got into the cab, “And… uh, it was nice meeting you,” he quickly added.

“Yeah. Nice meeting you too, Gavin.”

Nines had made it back home safe and in record time. Despite the flurry of thoughts swirling around in his head, he had no trouble falling asleep almost instantly. In the morning, he woke up to the sound of Ada cooking breakfast. Cooking was still one of those skills he struggled with learning. The way humans cook was not so different from how merfolk do it, but he wasn’t good at cooking underwater either.

Ada smiled at him when she noticed Nines join her in the kitchen.

“Have fun last night?”

“Yes, it was definitely a unique experience. I can’t say I can really remember having a night like that before.”

“Ha, well that’s Tina and Valerie for you. They’re such a whirlwind of a couple. I knew them both before they got together and they are simply something else. How was Gavin?”

“Good, I think. He was pretty quiet throughout the whole night.”

“I’m not surprised. Even though I have known his friends for years and he’s often in my shop, I doubt we’ve spoken more than ten words to each other. He’s not exactly the most personable man I’ve met. He’s really why you left your life behind?”

Nines nodded. “I feel something for him. I couldn’t get him out of my head. I want to know him better.”

“Can’t help you with that much, apologies. Teaching you how to be a human? Easy. Developing a relationship and bond with Gavin Reed? Way above my pay grade. I do wish you all the luck in the world with it, though,” Ada said as she served Nines a breakfast of eggs and toast, “Speaking of, Tina invited us to go out with them next Saturday. Since the shop is closed then, I thought it would be fun if we both joined them.”

“Aren’t we usually open on Saturdays?”

“Next Saturday is a holiday. Nothing too major, but most businesses are closed and I thought I could use a break. Figured we could join Tina and Valerie at the beach and then go with them to the boardwalk at night. Gavin will probably be there too. Their friend Chris and his wife may be there too if they can both get the day off and find a sitter. Sound okay?”

Nines nodded.

“Great. Now I’m going to have to give you a crash course about boardwalks so you’re prepared. Also, we’ll have to get you some new clothes for the occasion.”

Next Saturday arrived much quicker than Nines had expected. He was really starting to get the hang of working at Ada’s shop and Valerie and Tina dropped in briefly a handful of times, occasionally with their friend that they introduced as Chris. Gavin was notably absent from their short visits but Nines did his best to not think into it. Before he knew it, he was standing at the front of the shop with Ada and the bag of stuff she had bought for him to get him through the day. Tina and Valerie pulled up in front of the shop with their car. The front windows were rolled down and Nines could hear the loud pop music blaring through the speakers. The wives were wearing matching neon sunglasses and waved enthusiastically at them.

Ada and Nines went to go into the back of the car, but when they opened the door they were greeted by Gavin sitting in the back on the side farthest from them. He nodded a greeting to the two of them before looking like he was attempting to dissolve into the seat.

“After you,” Ada gestured to Nines to the open door.

Nines was going to point out that due to their comparative height differences, it would make more sense for her to sit in the middle, but then he understood what her motives behind it were and slid into the car.

Much like at the bar, there wasn’t exactly a ton of available space between the two of them. Nines didn’t miss the look of discomfort that Gavin had when the two of them were pressed against each other. Gavin had appeared to be adverse to physical contact with Nines than he had noted in other people. It was troubling, but Nines decided he wouldn’t dwell too much on it. Perhaps that is just the kind of person Gavin is.

“So Chris and his wife Renae are meeting us there,” Valerie explained as they began driving towards the beach, “They got a sitter for the day but they have to head back home by nine and that’s when the party just begins for the rest of us who are sensible enough to not have a baby.”

“Fuck off,” Tina snorted, “I know you were looking adopting agencies the other day.”

“Hey, doesn’t mean we’d have a baby. We could get a grown one.”

“Better keep babies away from Tina,” Gavin interjected, “She’d probably set it on fire.”

“Suck on it, Reed,” Tina sneered back, flipping him off, “I’d do better than you, that’s for sure.”

“Don’t doubt it. But I’m not the one whose spouse wants kids.”

Tina rolled her eyes. “Anyways, Nines and Ada: we are about to revolutionize y’alls lives.”

This time it was Gavin’s turns to roll his eyes and Nines felt a smile curl on his lips.

“Obviously going to the main beach is suicide,” Tina continued, obvilous to Gavin, “It’s going to have more tourists than normal because of the holiday. And how do we feel about tourists, gang?”

“We fucking hate tourists,” Gavin and Valerie responded in sync.

“So instead of going to those overcrowded and quite frankly, boring, areas, we are going to take you to the superior beach area. So secretive that me, Val, Gavin, and Chris have been the main attendees of this beach for several years. By joining us, you promise to keep this as lowkey as possible so our spot doesn’t blow up and become the next tourist attraction. Got it?”

Ada and Nines both nodded in agreement and Nines realized that they were going to go to the cove that he had frequented so many times. He hadn’t been back there, or to the beach in general, since he first stepped on land. A pit of anxiety began to grow in his stomach as he absentmindedly fiddled with the locket that was giving him his human form. He didn’t know why he was so nervous, but for some reason, he felt like he was pushing the boundaries of what he could get away with without revealing his true identity. God, he didn’t even know how to swim without gills. This could end so badly.

His anxieties were not quenched when they drove up to a familiar dirt patch where another car was waiting for them. They all got out of the car and were greeted by Chris and another woman that Nines assumed was his wife Renae.

Ada and Renae hugged, talking about how long it had been and how they needed to get coffee together sometime. Renae then approached Nines, holding out her hand to shake it.

“So you’re the famous Mr. Nines,” she said as he grabbed her hand, “I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Likewise.”

“Let’s get a move on ladies,” Tina called back to them as she and Valerie began down the steep path with Gavin close at their heels.

Nines didn’t know what he expected, but the secret cove looked exactly the same as it did a month ago. It was odd though, being the one standing on the land looking out into the water instead of the other way around. Before he could let himself get too distracted by being near the ocean again, he started setting up his stuff by Ada. It wasn’t much, but Ada assured him it was all the basic items that humans tended to have on outings such as this.

“Haven’t worn sunscreen before, right?” Ada quietly whispered to him, pulling a bottle out of her bag.

Nines shook his head.

“Thought so. Here,” she handed him the bottle, “rub this on your face, chest, and arms. Trust me, you’ll regret it if you don’t. I’ll help you with your back on the condition you help me with mine. I’d ask Tina or Val for help but … looks like they’ve got their hands full.”

Nines looked over towards the two women. Tina was pulling Gavin down by his ear and lecturing him about something while he loudly protested it. While he was having to deal with that, Valerie was sneaking on globs of sunscreen onto his back while he halfheartedly tried to swat her away. Nines smiled. It was … endearing. Gavin continued to try to fight off the two women, insisting that it was unnecessary. His protests fell on deaf ears and they were successful in their mission.

Once Ada and Nines were done with the sunscreen, they approached the water and were joined by the others. Tina ran in first, splashing the cool water on her wife and Chris as they were the closest to her. Valerie and Chris were quick to get back at her, Gavin and Renae joining in, and the group quickly made their way deeper in the water. Nines stayed at the edge of the water. It felt odd, returning to the seawater but as a human. It felt wrong. Ada sensed his hesitation and grabbed his arm, pulling him towards the water.

“Come on. North always liked going into the water,” she encouraged him and he hesitantly followed her.

They were about knee-deep in the water when a big wave began to approach them. Ada shot a glance at Nines and her eyes lit up. Before he could ask her what she was planning, she went to dive under the incoming wave, dragging Nines with her. He had only enough time to remember he couldn’t breathe water anymore before he was completely submerged.

It all felt so familiar and foreign at once. There was an unfamiliar stinging in his eyes and he found he couldn’t see underwater even remotely as well as he used to be able to do. He didn’t make the mistake of inhaling the water, but he also realized that he needed to get to the surface quickly for air. He popped his head up and swam over to where the others had gathered in the water.

The feeling of being in the water: Nines had forgotten how much he craved it. Even if his body was different right now, it still was such a familiar sensation. God, he had missed this. He could feel his cheeks hurt from smiling, but he couldn’t help it. This was the most in his element he had been in for a long time.

“Hey, wait, Nines, is this your first time at the beach?” Chris asked, curious.

Nines hadn’t prepared an answer for this one so he did what he thought was the easiest route.

“Yes, it is. We didn’t exactly have this kind of stuff back home.”

Technically it wasn’t a lie. His home was a sea kingdom leagues underwater. You’d be hard-pressed to find a beach like this cove down there.

“Really? There are no beaches near Detroit?” Gavin asked.

“Pfft, Gavin, I know you know that Michigan is not a coastal state,” Tina responded laughing.

“I know that,” Gavin retorted, “But aren’t there like those massive lakes or something? Isn’t that what the whole state is known for?”

Nines' mind blanked. He did not retrain as much of the Detroit fun facts as he would have hoped. He quickly shot Ada a look and she immediately was able to start talking about The Great Lakes and shift the focus away from Nines.

Nines sat back and listened to the conversation as it quickly went down a long string of tangents. He occasionally would make a comment, but he found that he liked just watching the conversation unfold in front of him. It was not unlike how he had observed them before, except this time he knew what they were saying and wasn’t just a silent onlooker. They stayed out in the water for a couple of hours before deciding to get out. Nines reluctantly followed them out, wanting to spend more time in the water.

When they got out, Tina turned to Nines inquisitively.

“Have you played Mao before?”

Nines was confused. “No?”

Tina’s eyes glinted and Ada groaned.

“Oh god, I haven’t played that in ages. I’ve definitely forgotten a lot of the rules,” Ada complained.

“What’s the game about?”

“You’ll see,” Ada informed him, which was actually no help at all.

They all gathered around Tina and Valerie’s towels and sat in a circle. Tina pulled out a deck of cards from her bag and started dealing the cards out. Whether by accident or by design, Nines had ended up sitting next to Gavin yet again, with Chris and his wife on his other side. Nines really wanted to ask someone for clarification about the game, but the whole group had become uncharacteristically silent as Tina handed out the cards. He resigned to mimicking their actions and hoping he would figure things out soon enough. 

“The goal is to get rid of all the cards in your hand,” Tina explained as she finished dealing the cards, “The game of Mao has officially begun.”

Nines watched the group all become stoic as they went around and placed a card face-up in a pile. When it got to Nines, he assumed that the rule was to put a card down of the same suit. The last card that had been played was by Gavin, a four of hearts. Nines looked at his hand of cards and placed down a seven of hearts.

He noticed that they were all focusing intently on him after he played it. He continued to sit there, starting to feel awkward. When he proceeded to do nothing else, Valerie handed him a card from the deck.

“Huh? What’s this?”

That earned him another card.

He resolved to keep his mouth shut and continue observing them.

Chris then placed a seven of spades on the deck. He then knocked on the deck twice before declaring “seven of spades,” and turning to his wife to say “have a nice day.”

For whatever reason, this was not met with the penalty of cards and Nines deduced that those must be allowed in the rules. He then paid extra close attention to all of the actions that the other players made, trying to figure out the secret code that they were all operating under.

It took several turns, but eventually Nines reached a point where he wasn’t met with a penalty card when he tried to play a card. He was easily in last place, with Ada and Chris’ wife doing marginally better than him. Gavin and Tina were both in the lead, each down to two cards each. The two of them were shooting daggers at each other as the fierceness of their competition increased. Soon they were both down to one card each, and as Tina’s turn came up, she smirked at Gavin and threw her last card down, a queen of hearts.

“God save the queen! And Mao!” she exclaimed.

“Fuck off, cheater,” Gavin grumbled.

“I didn’t cheat! I won fair and square!”

“Yeah right. It’s only a coincidence that you were also the dealer.”

“Fine, you can deal for the next round.”

Gavin flipped her off as he started to shuffle the deck of cards again.

“So Nines, how’d you like the game?” Chris asked.

“I liked it. I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. I do have one question about one of the rules-”

“Ah,” Valerie cut him off, “No discussing the rules. Ever. That’s like half of the game right there.”

“You’re definitely doing better than my first time,” Ada added, “I was so lost the first time Tina roped me into playing this.”

They started the next round and Nines did significantly better this time. He received the occasional penalty but compared to the last playthrough he was killing it. Tina won the round again, much to Gavin’s displeasure. They played several more rounds, which Tina won every time. Gavin came close to winning once, but Nines was able to penalize him before he placed down his last card, much to Gavin’s abject horror and everyone else’s pleasure. Before Nines knew it, it was late afternoon and they were packing up their stuff so they could head to the boardwalk for the evening.

Standing at the foot of the pier was quite daunting for Nines. He had seen the boardwalk from afar, but this was his first time up and close and it was a bit overwhelming. It was also extremely crowded and he struggled a bit to not get separated from the others. Once they were past the ticket booths, Chris and his wife went off to have a long-overdue date night, leaving the five of them to decide what they should experience first. It was Valerie’s suggestion to try out the rollercoaster first, so that’s how Nines found himself standing in line to go on the ride. He had a very small frame of reference for what he would experience on it.

“This is your first time, isn’t it?” Ada asked from behind him.

“Yes, it is.”

This prompted Gavin, who was in front of him in line, to turn around with a raised eyebrow.

“You really never been on a rollercoaster before?”

Nines shook his head. “No, I’ve never gotten the chance.”

“What? They don’t have rollercoasters where you’re from or something?”

“Not really,” Nines replied, hoping that it didn’t turn out that Detroit was known for their roller coasters.

“Hmm. Well, this one is nothing compared to most of them out there. Some time you’re gonna have to go out to one of those theme parks with the real deals. Even though they're all overpriced as shit and crowded like hell.”

When they got to the front of the line, they were assigned their seats on the rollercoaster cars. Due to the order, they were standing in line, he and Gavin were placed next to each other yet again. Nines was beginning to expect it at this point. The safety bars were pulled over their lap and the ride began. It was slow at first, which caught Nines a bit off guard. From his understanding, these rides were supposed to be fast. But the ride continued to slowly climb up an incline. It got to the top and stopped.

Gavin turned to him with a smirk, “Ready, Nines?”

Before Nines could even process what was happening, the ride made a sudden and very fast decline. That’s how the rest of the ride went, getting zapped around quickly over the wooden tracks until it eventually pulled back up to the start.

The adrenaline was rushing through Nines’ veins and he couldn’t help from smiling. Gavin seemed to be in a similar state as he looked over with a similar smile on his face.

“Not bad, huh?” he asked Nines.

“I really liked that,” Nines earnestly replied.

“Yeah, well that line is starting to look like a bitch and I’m sure Tina already has an itinerary of things for us to do,” Gavin said as they got out of the ride.

They were quickly joined by the three women and they made their way down to where the game booths were. This area was significantly more crowded with people than the other areas and was harder to not lose each other in the crowd. Despite his best efforts, it didn’t take long for him to lose sight of Tina, Valerie, and Ada in the crowd.

“They’re somewhere around here,” Gavin shrugged, appearing at Nines’ side, “Might as well hit up some of these booths before Tina shows up and ropes us into one of her schemes.”

Gavin headed off towards one of the booths, Nines trailing along behind. He led him to one of the booths with water guns.

"You ever play one of these before?" Gavin asked.

Nines shook his head.

"Lucky for you, you happen to be in the presence of a pro. Been playing this since I was twelve."

Gavin went up to the man running the booth and paid for a round. Nines watched intently as Gavin aimed the water gun at the moving target. Gavin was entirely focused on the target, biting his lip in concentration. His score skyrocketed up as he was able to direct almost the entirety of the water's stream to the center of the target. The clock ticked down and there was a buzzing as the time ran out. Gavin stepped back, a proud smile on his face. The score at least looked high to Nines. The man running the booth grabbed one of the plushies down from the prize rack and handed it to Gavin. It was a medium-sized cat plushie. The cat was black with sparkling green eyes.

"Here," Gavin muttered, practically shoving it at Nines, “Asshole would get jealous if I brought home another cat, fake or otherwise.”

Nines gingerly took it, holding it carefully in his arms. He had never really been given a present like this before. He and Connor didn’t exactly grow up in a gift-giving household and even since then neither of them had really picked up on the habit. Gifts between them were practical items, not something like the plushie Gavin gave him. Something that existed just for the sake of existing.

“Thank you,” he softly said.

“Eh, it’d be a waste for me to keep it. That bastard would tear that thing to pieces five minutes flat,” Gavin shrugged, decidedly not looking towards Nines. If the overhead colorful lights weren’t shining on them, Nines would have sworn that Gavin was blushing. “Anyways, Tina and crew are still MIA. You pick a booth this time. Can’t let me steal all the fun.”

Nines approached a booth where you had to knock over a stack of bottles with small plastic balls. He was an excellent marksman. This should be a piece of cake.

It was not a piece of cake. The balls were significantly lighter than what he was expecting, not to mention the difference between throwing something underwater and something on land was not something he had accounted for when he made his first attempt. Everything about his first round was off, he could barely knock a handful of bottles over, not enough for a prize. He immediately paid for another round. Determination filled him. He was going to win at least something goddamnit. 

Nines, if nothing else, was a fast learner. He had always been extremely apt at observing something and mimicking it within himself till he perfected it. That skill had been used for evil for so long but now it was being used to win a damn plushie. 

By the third round, Nines had readjusted his technique enough that the person running the booth gave him a small shark plushie. Nines took it, smiling with satisfaction. 

“Damn, is your learning curve a vertical line? Cause that’s the fastest I’ve seen someone get good at that game,” Gavin said with approval as they continued on the boardwalk.

“I’ve done similar stuff in the past,” Nines shrugged, “Just had to get used to it.”

“Yeah, well it was still impressive. If you played a few more rounds, you’d probably end up setting a record or some shit at that rate.”

A smile curled on Nines’ lips. That was the first time Gavin had complimented him on something. He found he rather liked the feeling it gave him in his chest. Looking down at the shark plushie, he then handed it to Gavin.

“Wha-?” Gavin asked, clearly taken aback.

“It’s to thank you,” Nines explained, “for the cat.”

“Shit man, you don’t need to give me anything for that. ‘Sides, you worked too hard for it. I can’t take that from you.”

Nines must have looked crestfallen by the rejection because an emotion that Nines was not familiar with crossed Gavin’s face. Sighing, he grabbed it.

“Fine, okay, I’ll take it. Just don’t make a habit out of this, okay? Don’t need you to go around and get me a bunch of presents or some shit.”

Nines’ face immediately lit up. He saw Gavin’s lips twitch upwards before he snapped his head in the other direction. They continued walking down the narrow path, an easy silence falling between them.

“Let me guess, you’ve never been on a Ferris wheel before?” Gavin asked, breaking the silence.

Nines nodded. He had been eyeing the large attraction all evening and was wondering when he could ask them to go on it.

“Since the others seemed to have forgotten about us, we might as well go on it. The line is just gonna get worse later on,” Gavin suggested.

Nines didn’t want to add that he had happened to forget about the others as well and instead followed after Gavin to wait in the line for the ride. Being one of the central attractions, the line was on the longer side. But for some reason, Nines found that when he was waiting there with Gavin, the time didn’t feel long at all.

“You’re not afraid of heights are you?” Gavin asked as they approached the front of the line.

Nines shook his head. “Not really, no.” Even though he had lived his whole life under sea level, the vast emptiness of the ocean was not unlike the sky. The feeling of when you’ve been swimming for an hour and you still can’t see the floor below you or the surface above you and everywhere you turn is an endless eternity of water, Nines imagined was a much more frightening sensation than being a couple of hundred feet from the ground. And Nines was well adjusted to the feeling of the former. “Are you?”

“Nah. I mean I’m not about to jump out of an airplane anytime soon, but I’m not, like, actively afraid of heights. Not like Tina. Me, Val, and Chris, have gotten her good many times,” Gavin added, smiling with nostalgia.

The line moved quickly and soon the duo was getting into the Ferris wheel car. They sat on opposite sides, facing each other. The car wasn’t enclosed, so when the wheel began to move, Nines felt the cool evening breeze rush through his hair. He looked over to the side facing the city and he could feel his smile grow in wonder at the view of the town. As they went higher, Nines did the best he could to try to take in all he could see at this height. It was unlike anything he had experienced so far. He could see far out inland, farther out than he had seen before. It was amazing.

The Ferris wheel paused when they were at the top. Nines turned to look back at Gavin, but much to his surprise, Gavin had already been looking at him with a soft smile on his face. However, the second they made eye contact, Gavin decided that staring out at the ocean had suddenly become more interesting and did his best to repress the smile on his lips. Nines didn’t bother repressing his. He was becoming quite fond of Gavin’s quirks.

Much sooner than he would have liked, the ride came to its official stop and the duo got off the ride.

“Still no Tina, huh?” Gavin remarked as the two aimlessly walked around, respective plushies in hand, “They must be having some sapphic cult meeting or something.”

“Is that common for them?” Nines asked bemused.

“Listen, when you’ve spent over a decade having 50% of your friend group be composed of sapphic women, you learn to accept that sometimes they’ve just got to do their own fuckass thing somewhere.”

The two ended up stopping at a section of the pier overlooking the coastline. There were still plenty of people around, but it was less crowded than a lot of the other areas.

“How long have you and Tina known each other?”

“We met back in high school. We were both in a … program, together. We were the only bitches there who could handle each other. Fell out of contact after graduation, and then met up again, I don’t know, ten years ago? I met Chris around then too. Both of their spouses showed up not long after, though it took them each a couple of years before they got married,” Gavin paused, clearly thinking about something, “What about you and Ada? How long have y’all known each other?”

Nines ran through their cover story again in his head.

“We met back in college. I stayed over there and then she moved out here. We’ve been keeping in touch since and when I mentioned wanting to get out of Detroit, she offered to let me stay at her place while I figured out what to do next. I’m lucky that she offered me a job at her store too. I really owe a lot to her.”

“You uhm, you planning on sticking around here?” Gavin asked, doing that thing where he looked away from Nines.

“I-,” Nines didn’t know what to say. He liked it here, but he knew this couldn’t be permanent, “I don’t really know. I really like it here, I just- I don’t know. I guess I’ll just have to see what happens from here.”

Gavin nodded. “Been saying the same shit for thirty-six years, still haven’t managed to leave. Who knows, maybe the exorbitant rent is what’ll finally get me to move on. You’re smart that you’ve got a roommate that can actually help cover the cost of utilities and shit. My roommate just shits in a litterbox and demands me to feed him twice a day.”

Nines smiled. “How is he doing by the way?”

“Oh Asshole? Little fucker woke me up this morning coughing up a hairball.”

Nines laughed.

“Yeah, it’s real funny when you’re not having to clean that up at seven am, all while the fucker is also screaming for breakfast. The things I put up for that guy,” Gavin added with a dramatic eye roll.

“He seems entertaining.”

“That’s one way to put it. I love the guy, but man is he a handful.”

“I hope I’ll get to meet him someday.”

Gavin gave a half-smile at that. “Eh, gotta limit his visitors, can’t let it get in his head that he’s some kind of celebrity. He’s dramatic enough as it is, I can’t imagine what he would be like if he started thinking he was popular.”

Before Nines could say anything else, he was startled by a sudden loud noise.

“Looks like the fireworks have started,” Gavin commented.

“Fireworks?”

“Yeah, you know, it’s still a holiday. The boardwalk always does a show for the visitors.”

They were cut off again by the sudden explosive noise, but this time he managed to see it. His eyes widened and he could feel his mouth hang open as he saw the beautiful display in the sky. He vaguely remembers Ada mentioning this, but it still took him off guard. It was unlike anything he had ever seen. It was honestly beautiful. His eyes remained glued on the firework show in front of him and he was sorely disappointed when it was over.

“Not bad this year,” Gavin commented, “You like it?”

“Yes, I did,” Nines nodded enthusiastically.

Gavin smiled and looked like he was going to say something else, but they were interrupted by Tina’s voice suddenly calling out “There you guys are!”

The duo turned around and saw Tina, Valerie, and Ada showing up behind them.

“Where the hell have you guys been? We looked all over for you,” Gavin asked.

“We’ve been around. We figured that you two had decided to go off on your own together,” Valerie explained.

“Here, Nines,” Ada said as she handed him the funnel cake she had been holding, “You should try this it’s super good.”

Nines took it and then had a bite with the fork she had handed him. She was right, it was very good.

“Anyways,” Tina continued, “Figured we’d find you guys and head out. Most of the cool shit here is closed anyways. Though we decided that we’d split up here since Ada’s place is within walking distance from here and also in the opposite direction of our place. We know how shitty the traffic is going to be going that direction with all the people who came in here for the holiday leaving.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Gavin nodded.

“It was great seeing you again, Nines,” Valerie said as she hugged him goodbye. “You too, Ada. We really need to link up more,” she added, moving on to hugging her.

The goodbye to Tina was very similar and the duo began walking away. Gavin turned to follow them, but then he pulled a pen out of his pocket. Suddenly, he grabbed Nines’ hand. Nines was so caught off guard by the sudden physical contact that he wasn’t able to process exactly what Gavin was doing until he let his hand go. On his hand, there was now a series of numbers written there by Gavin.

“You know, if you ever want to talk or something,” Gavin shrugged and followed after Tina and Valerie.

Nines looked down at the number, unable to stop himself from smiling. It looks like he was going to have to buy a phone.

It had been about a week since that night on the boardwalk. Nines had finally gotten himself a phone with Ada’s help and had texted Gavin. Initially, there was no response but about three days later he received a picture of Gavin’s cat sitting in a doorway staring intently into his room, accompanied only by the message “ _ can’t get a moment of privacy in my damn house _ .” Nines liked that and the two of them started messaging each other occasionally over text. It was simple stuff, mainly pictures of Asshole the cat and Gavin complaining about work. Somehow, Tina got a hold of his number as well and suddenly he was receiving many messages from the entire friend group at all hours of the day. Tina messaged him the most, constantly sending him pictures of Gavin not paying attention at work, dogs she saw on the street, and her and Valerie. Nines liked it. The feeling of having friends, of being part of a group of people that all liked to spend time with him, it was a new feeling to him. And he was finding himself becoming rather fond of it.

He still thought about his home, but he found with each day he was becoming more used to living on land. He was happy here. Truly happy. He didn’t remember the last time he had been this happy before. Was going back still something he wanted?

“It’s a nice evening, tonight,” Ada remarked, snapping him out of his train of thoughts. She had dragged Nines out to the roof of her house to enjoy the view. From their vantage point, they could see the rooftops of hundreds of the seaside businesses and houses, and just beyond those, Nines could see the wide expanse of the endless ocean. Had it always looked that lonely out there?

“Yes, it is,” he replied.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you this for some now but, you have magic, right? North had told me that all merfolk did.”

“That’s correct. Though it’s different for everyone. Everyone has a natural affinity for it to varying degrees, but what’s more important is what kind of magic you study. Whatever North did to give me a human form, I don’t believe I would be capable of doing that.”

“What kind can you do then? I know a lot about North’s abilities, but we didn’t talk much about others.”

“I was trained primarily for combat. The majority of my skills lie in that area. Anything outside of that I’ve had to learn on my own after the revolution.”

“Right. I forgot you grew up under Amanda.”

“You know about her?”

“When North and I met, it was after the revolution, She told me about it, how Amanda ensured that the majority of your people were living in poverty by hoarding the majority of the wealth among the top officials, all that totalitarian and oppressive government shit. She told me more about her, Markus, Simon, and Josh’s side of the revolution, but she mentioned that someone from the palace, Connor I believe? Played a major role in the end and banished her from the land. He’s your brother, right?”

“Yes,” Nines replied, wincing somewhat at the bad memories. The revolution was not something he remembered fondly. “Amanda often sent him on missions to stomp out the rebellion. I did it too, but she kept a tighter leash on me. I was stronger and more powerful than him, but that also made me more of a liability if I were to go rogue. So Connor spent more time outside and then when he switched sides … well, she didn’t exactly see that as a sign that I should get more freedom.”

“What about during the end of the revolution? North never talked about you besides an occasional mention that Connor had a younger brother.”

“I, uh, I didn’t do anything,” Nines admitted, “When Connor switched sides, I started realizing something wasn’t right about what I had been doing. But I didn’t have the exposure to the outside like he had. I hadn’t seen the effect of her rule on people. And she was just … always drilling her agenda into my head. She had been for years. Connor and I were both orphans before her. Despite being young, both of us had shown a huge amount of natural power. So she took us in and turned us into her two guard dogs. For so long, all I had was my objectives given to me by her. We weren’t allowed to think for ourselves. And when I started questioning her, it was too much. I froze. Trapped between my sense of guilt at what I did and my sense of obligation to follow Amanda.”

Ada gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder. He hadn’t meant to talk too much about his personal issues, it wasn’t exactly his style. But hell, maybe he wanted to talk about what happened right now.

“Good thing she’s gone now,” Ada said in an attempt to comfort him.

“Yeah,” Nines nodded, “Nobody could break Connor’s banishment spell. I helped reinforce it too. It’s not the same as casting it myself, but it’s got both of our power behind it.”

There was a short silence between them.

“Uh, Nines, I don’t really know how to ask this but, why didn’t they kill Amanda? If she was really as bad as you and North said, then why didn’t they just completely end her?”

“Amanda is extremely powerful. Sure, Connor and I have more raw power, but she has decades on us in terms of studying and perfecting her craft. And magic, it’s complicated.”

“How so?”

“It’s not like that movie you had me watch the other day, the one with the wands. Magic … it’s part of you, quite literally. You have to put your own energy into it. Usually, this isn’t a problem for most magic users. But when you’re in combat? It can have dire consequences. The amount of strength and power it would take to completely destroy her, it’s a lot. And when spells are broken by someone else other than the caster, it physically hurts them. The more powerful the spell, the worse it hurts. You’d have to be strong enough to continue fighting even if someone is able to counterattack your spell, which is very hard to do. Many have died from casting too powerful a spell and having it broken by someone else.” 

“So when you return to the water, will that hurt North?”

“No, it won’t,” Nines shook his head, “Because that is the natural end to the spell. But if someone was to break the spell by their own means, other than me voluntarily taking my necklace off, then it would.”

Ada hummed in understanding. 

“So Connor wasn’t powerful enough to kill Amanda without severely risking his own life, but he could banish her?”

Nines nodded.

“Would you have been able to kill her? Since you said you had more raw power than him.”

Nines shrugged. “Don’t really know. I-I don’t really spend a lot of time thinking about what I could have done then.”

“Of course.”

Nines’ curiosity was finally getting the better of him.

“Ada? Can I ask you something? How did you and North meet?”

“I was waiting for you to ask about that,” Ada smiled, “I met her on a night like this. I was wandering down by the beach and then I saw her. Well, more specifically, I saw her transform from a merperson to a human. When she saw me, she was obviously pretty startled. I was too of course. I had never seen anything like her before. It was just so much to take in that I first thought that I had imagined her merperson form. Either way, I could tell she was lost and needed help, so I tried to help her. But of course, there was the whole language issue. I’ve studied some linguistics stuff for fun before then and your language, well it is definitely not spoken by anyone living on land, but it was similar. It was a … interesting first few weeks. But we made it work. I taught her English and generally how to be a human and she taught me more about herself.”

“That’s how you can speak our language? North taught you.”

“Yes, though I’ve done my own studying since then on the roots of the language. At some point, I’m going to have you fact check some of the research I’ve been doing in my spare time about the origins and whatnot of it. Anyways, she and I made things work. She helped me run the shop, we spent all of our time together, and we were quite close. It was … nice.”

“What happened?”

“We were down by the sea one day, and there was some seafoam. And well, she recognized it.”

Nines knew what Ada meant by that. When merfolk die, their body turns into seafoam. It’s probably one of the main reasons why they had gone so unnoticed by humans for the past few centuries. Merfolk all shared some sixth sense when it came to seafoam. Despite the fact that it had no resemblance to the person it once was, any merperson could identify who a piece of seafoam was originally.

“It was one of her friends. One of the guys from the revolution. Josh, I think? She realized that she had to go back. And she did. She was just gone after that,” Ada was looking out towards the sea, an expression full of longing on her face.

Nines vaguely remembered the incident that took Josh’s life. While there had been no attacks from any of the far-away kingdoms, merpeople weren’t exactly apex predators. Sure they were more advanced and well off than most of what lives down there, but there are some extreme monsters down there. It was not a frequent occurrence that one of those creatures came closer than normal to their territory, but most people knew someone who was claimed by one such beast. Nines didn’t remember the specifics of this particular attack, being the military commander he had to be informed of all such events. He never really talked to the guy, but Connor had been upset.

“We couldn’t meet up again,” Ada continued, “She had no way to gauge how long she was going to have to stay down there. We didn’t even have a specific meeting place or spot she could go to and wait. I had a store to run so I couldn’t be checking the beaches 24/7 and she couldn’t risk getting caught by someone else. It’s not like she could just walk on land again. So I haven’t seen her since. Before she left, I did tell her that if any of your people ever came up to land, to send them to me. Least I could do for her. She is … she is a very remarkable woman.”

“Ada? Were you and North … um, together?”

“Oh! Uh, no. No, we weren’t. No. Not really,” Ada sighed, “You know how you can see a person every day and not think anything about it, and then suddenly they’re gone and you realize how much they meant to you the whole time? Yeah, that’s …” Ada trailed off, eyes focused on the ocean, “How is she? Is she doing okay?”

“Connor knows her better than I do, but uhm, she seems alright. She’s got a nice home, a lot of friends, a steady life.”

Ada’s lips curled into a sad smile. “She always talked about how much she just wanted to be allowed to just live a normal life. No more revolution shit, no more struggling to survive. Sounds like she got everything she wanted.”

Nines didn’t have a response to that. He didn’t know how North was doing really. Hell, he hadn’t even realized that she lived as a human for a while too. He remembered hearing Connor talk about how she had gone on some trip to visit a far off kingdom and he didn’t know when she was planning on coming back sometime in the aftermath of the revolution. He looked over at Ada. She looked the most vulnerable he had ever seen her.

“How do you know?” Nines asked her, breaking the silence, “How do you know when you care about some … like that?”

“Is this about Gavin?”

“I- yes. I never had felt anything like it before I saw him. It’s like my heart is going to explode when I look at him. I can’t get him out of my head.”

Ada laughed softly. “Yeah, sounds like he’s important to you.”

“I don’t know why, I just really want to get to know him better. To spend more time with him. Is that normal?”

“Wanting to get closer to Gavin? Unless you’re Tina Chen or Chris Miller, then no. But that feeling of wanting to know someone better? Of caring very much about someone? A lot of people feel that.”

“What should I do?”

“I’m not exactly the best person to ask about this, Nines,” Ada chuckled, “Remember, I didn’t know what I felt for North till it was too late. But I think you go and try to get to know Gavin better. Tina would be a better judge than me when determining how Gavin may feel about you, but he is a lot nicer to you than he is to a lot of people. You’ve got nothing to lose. Better that when you return back to the water, you don’t have any regrets.”

Right … returning to the water. He was still going to do that. But she was right. It would be better if he had fewer regrets when he returned.

“Thanks, Ada, for everything really. I really appreciate it.”

“Come here, fish boy,” Ada instructed him as she pulled him into a hug.

Nines relaxed into the contact. Having people who cared about him was nice. He was really getting used to this.

It took a few weeks before Nines was able to properly hang out with Gavin. The two had been texting each other constantly during that time, but the conversations remained very casual and Nines couldn’t figure out how to ask Gavin to spend time with him in person. He did see Gavin occasionally, but that was only when he dropped into Ada’s shop with Tina, Valerie, or Chris. That wasn’t exactly what Nines had in mind when Ada told him to get to know Gavin better. Fortunately for him, the opportunity naturally opened itself to him one night.

**_From Gavin:_ **

_ what the hell do you mean by “you haven’t seen repo the genetic opera” _

_ Exactly that. Is it good? _

_ is it good??? is it good??? is repo the genetic opera (2008) good??? _

_ Yes, that’s exactly what I’m asking. _

_ dude the movie is like,,, the invention of cinema _

_ like it's the best campy horror musical since rocky horror picture show _

_ please tell me you’ve seen rocky horror picture show _

_ I’m afraid not. _

_ I cannot believe this _

_ how have you lived this long on earth and not seen either of those movies _

_ I just haven’t? There’s a lot of movies that I haven’t seen. _

_ yeah but like,,, these are classics,,, you can’t NOT watch them _

_ Well what do you suggest I do then? _

_ are you free friday night? _

_ cause if so, you better get your ass over to my place so we can properly culture you _

_ haven’t seen rocky horror picture show i can’t believe this _

And with that, Nines had a reason to go see Gavin again. Ada made sure he would have the night off and before he knew it, he was standing in front of Gavin’s apartment door on Friday evening.

Anticipation clutched Nines’ heart. Going to Gavin’s home alone to watch movies together seemed like a big step, and now that Nines was here: he was starting to get doubtful. Before he could talk himself out of going, he knocked on the door. There were a few agonizing moments of silence before the door burst open revealing Gavin. He was dressed quite casually, but it appeared he put more effort into his appearance than typical. Nines was suddenly very conscious about how he was dressed. He hoped that the button-up Ada had let him borrow was the appropriate level of attire for this … hangout session? Is that the correct term?

“Uh, hey,” Gavin said once he took in Nine’s presence in front of him.

“Hi,” Nines replied, feeling probably the most awkward he had ever felt on land, waiting for the ground to suddenly swallow him up.

“You want to come in?” Gavin hesitantly asked.

“Uhm, sure. Yes, I would like to,” Nines answered, internally cringing on how awkward his voice sounded. Tonight was going to be a disaster.

He followed Gavin into his apartment. It was on the smaller side, but it still looked quite nice. There was definitely more cat-themed paraphernalia than Nines had been expecting, but he thought that it was cute. He had taken good care of the cat plushie that Gavin had given him at the pier. He suddenly heard the sound of a small creature rushing towards his legs. Before he could dodge the incoming attack, Gavin effectively swooped up the cat with one hand and held him close to his chest.

“What did I say about running in front of our guests’ feet?” Gavin scolded the cat, “What am I going to do with you?” he muttered as he pressed a quick kiss to the cat’s head. “Asshole, this is Nines,” he introduced, pointing the cat towards Nines, “Nines, this is the little jerk who thinks he owns the house.”

“Hi, Asshole,” Nines said softly while he cautiously went to pat the cat’s head. Asshole excitedly headbutted Nines’ hand while he squirmed in Gavin’s arms. Nines couldn’t help but smile at the cat’s display of affection. This was the first time he had actually been able to see a real cat in person and he decided he liked them.

“Let me put him over on the couch so he won’t try to trip you again,” Gavin said as he walked over to the couch, unceremoniously letting the cat jump out of his arms, “I need to finish making the popcorn and then we can properly culture you.”

Nines went to sit on one side of the couch where Asshole immediately jumped into his lap and started demanding attention. Gavin went into his kitchen, leaving Nines to shower the cat with affection. Asshole was happily purring when Gavin reentered the room, bowl of popcorn in hand. He sat on the opposite side of the couch, placing the bowl in between them. Once he sat down, Asshole left Nines and ran over to Gavin, sitting next to him with an expectant look on his face.

“What? You’ve got Nines right there to give you attention,” he reminded the cat who seemed to not care about that anymore. “Fine,” he sighed defeatedly and started rubbing Asshole’s head which the cat seemed very pleased about. “Ready to have your life completely changed?” he asked Nines, a faint smile on his lips.

“Ready as ever,” Nines replied. Some of the awkward tension had died down now and he was beginning to relax more.

Gavin grinned and  _ The Rocky Horror Picture Show _ began. Nines didn’t know exactly what he was expecting, but he doubted that he would have been able to predict any aspect of the movie. The movie was all parts bizarre and eye-catching. The music was especially notable. He noticed Gavin mouthing the lyrics to more than a few songs. By the time the alien subplot revealed itself, Nines wasn’t as surprised as he thought he would be. Of course, there were aliens in a Dr. Frankenstein retelling. The movie came to a close and Gavin turned to Nines to gauge his reaction.

“Well? Life changed or what?”

“It certainly was … something else.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much everyone’s first reaction to it. When I first saw it, I was confused as hell, especially at the sexuality crisis Tim Curry was giving me. Okay, now you’ve got to see the other best campy horror musical ever made,” Gavin said as he put on  _ Repo! The Genetic Opera. _

Immediately, Nines was very aware of the tonal shift with this movie. It was much darker and there was significantly more blood compared to the last one. Gavin mouthed the lyrics to this one as well. While this one’s plot was less bizarre compared to the last one, Nines still found himself unable to predict exactly how the movie would end. During the final dramatic scene at the opera, Nines could swear he noticed Gavin’s eyes watering. The movie’s credits began to roll and Gavin gave Nines another expectant look.

“Well? Realize what you’ve been missing?”

“I can see now why you like these movies.”

“Yeah, well it’s a litmus test to see if you have taste. You’d be surprised how much criticism these films get, especially Repo. I mean come on, Paris Hilton has this buildup to perform this big number and her face just falls off and she’s booed off stage! That’s cinematic genius right there. You’d be an idiot to not enjoy the movie.”

“I will say that I enjoyed the plot more of Repo, as it was significantly less focused on sexual exploration, but I think the music from Rocky Horror was better.”

“That’s valid. Pretty hard to top ‘Sweet Transvestite’ in terms of iconic gay anthems from the 70s. Especially with Tim Curry dressed like  _ that _ . Though I mean, neither of these movies are truly horror movies. After seeing  _ Eraserhead _ , no other movie has had the ability to scare me for shit.” Gavin must have noticed the confused furrow of Nines’ brows because he followed that up with, “You have seen  _ Eraserhead _ , right?”

“No,” Nines shook his head, “I’m afraid not.”

Gavin sighed heavily and threw his head back.

“I can’t believe this,” he muttered. “Are you free next week?” he asked, looking at Nines.

And so, they fell into a bit of a routine. Every Friday, Nines would show up at Gavin’s apartment where Gavin would sit him down and introduce him to another movie that he claimed was culturally significant. Nines looked forward to these days more than anything else. By now, he felt pretty confident saying that he and Gavin were friends now. Gavin still dropped in the store with Tina and Chris and Nines and Ada were still invited to hang out with the group every so often, but it wasn’t the same as when it was just him and Gavin in his apartment watching a movie together. This routine continued for several months, but Nines quickly realized that the feelings he had for Gavin, the ones that had been driving him along, were not being sedated by the two spending more time together. Instead, he felt those feelings grow stronger. It was quite frankly terrifying. He went days without even thinking about his life in the ocean, and every time he was reminded of it, guilt clutched his heart. Guilt that he found himself becoming less and less inclined to go back there. None of his new friends would be back there. Gavin wouldn’t be back there. And as much as he cared for Connor, the benefits of returning were looking less and less appealing than the benefits of staying here. And he hated that he felt that way.

He was at Gavin’s apartment again. When Gavin learned that Nines had yet to watch any of  _ The Lord of the Rings _ trilogy, he insisted that the only true way to experience the movies was to marathon the extended editions. Nines had tried his best to remain alert throughout the entirety of the four-hour-long films, but it had been a long week and he found himself drifting off about halfway through the second movie.

When he was suddenly awakened by something, he assumed it was the movie. But when he cracked open his eyes, he saw that the movie was currently in a quiet moment of dialogue. He turned to Gavin with the intention of asking him about it, when he realized that he had been woken by Gavin. The other man had also fallen asleep on the other side of the couch, but unlike Nines, but by the way, he was tossing and turning and mumbling, it looked far from restful. Once Nines realized what was happening, he rushed over to Gavin’s side and tried to wake him up.

“Come on, wake up, Gavin!” Nines begged, his voice laced with concern, “Wake up!”

Suddenly, Gavin jolted awake, clearly still scared from whatever he was dreaming. But when he laid his eyes on Nines, he calmed down a bit.

“How long was I out?” he managed to ask.

“I don’t know, I just woke up. Gavin, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Gavin said unconvincingly, “Just a nightmare.”

“Are you sure? It looked pretty made.”

“Nah, I’m used to it by now. It’s fine.”

Nines was unconvinced, but there was little he could do if Gavin refused to talk. He looked at the clock. He had been asleep for several hours and probably overstayed his welcome, especially since it looked like they wouldn’t be finishing all the movies tonight.

“I-I should go. You should get some proper sleep and we’re not going to finish the marathon tonight,” Nines explained as he went to stand up. Before he was even able to walk away, he felt Gavin’s hand firmly grab his wrist. He looked back at Gavin, who was focused intently on the ground.

“Stay,” Gavin whispered, “please.”

Nines didn’t have the heart to say no, not that he wanted to anyways. He moved to sit next to Gavin. The grip on his wrist didn’t loosen and Nines didn’t know how to comfort Gavin. Before he could figure out what he should do, Gavin abruptly put his head on his shoulder. Both of their bodies went rigid at the physical contact but neither dared break away.

“I was a real piece of shit as a kid,” Gavin mumbled, breaking the silence, “Mom went crazy and ran off when I was young, dad was an abusive alcoholic. I didn’t cope with it well. By the time I was seventeen, I had ended up in continuation school and landed my ass in some mandatory juvenile delinquent program for troubled youths. I met Tina there. She was the only person I got along with. We were assholes to everyone there. When we finally graduated, she got her shit together and started being a functional member of society. I didn’t. I just … I did a lot of bad shit. Nearly ended up in prison. And then one night, I was just in this alley, coming off a shitty high, beaten half to death, and I knew that if something didn’t change I’d be dead by the end of the week. I didn’t want that to be who I ended my life as. I wanted things to be better. So I called Tina for the first time in years. She was willing to help me, God knows why. If I was an asshole before, those years on the streets did little to help. But she helped me out, landed a job at her work, introduced me to her friend Chris who also put up with me for some unknown reason, and eventually, I racked up enough money to have my own place.”

Gavin sighed and relaxed somewhat more on Nines' side.

“It was better, you know. I was sober, had a place to stay that wasn’t full of bullet holes and drug dealers, and even a couple of friends. It wasn’t great though. I didn’t really like my job, but I was determined to do good at it since it was my first job that wasn’t minimum wage or illegal. So I threw everything I had at it, hoping that maybe I’d start liking it more one day. I was still a piece of shit, but Chris and Tina were sticking around. Then they met their spouses and suddenly they had something else going on in their lives that kept them from being around as much. I said that it was fine, that I can make more friends so I wouldn’t have to be alone so often. And then there were the nightmares. One of the upsides of the drugs I messed around with before is that it kept all the bad memories at bay. Now I was sober and forced to remember every horrible thing that had ever happened to me. I thought it would go away eventually so I just endured through it.

“And then … and then nothing happened. I think that’s what got me. A whole decade had just gone past with me waiting for things to get better and it hadn’t. I was still miserable, still alone, still devoting myself to a job that I hadn’t learned to like, and my only two friends were settling down and starting their own families. It went from it just being the three of us to me third-wheeling every time I wanted to see my friends. Don’t get me wrong, Val and Renae are great, but the dynamic in our group had changed and I didn’t like it. I hated my life just as much at 36 as I did at 26, maybe even a bit more. All the people who Tina set me up with ended horribly and quickly. I didn’t have anyone. I had spent my whole life pushing myself to keep surviving because I thought things could potentially get better. But now what? Nothing seemed to be improving anymore, it was just getting worse. And then I realized that I was going to spend the next decade in the same steady decline, and then the next, and the next, and the next, until I finally croaked. I just … I couldn’t bear the thought of doing it anymore.”

Nines felt the grip on his wrist tighten as Gavin looked for the right words to use next. He wanted to comment, to tell Gavin that he didn’t see him as some piece of shit like he thought he was, but he also didn’t want to interrupt him. This was the first time Gavin had opened up to him and he didn’t want to jeopardize it.

“I bought a twelve-pack of beer and decided to get wasted. I went to the cove, I don’t know, for old time’s sake, I guess. Seemed like a nice enough place to end things off at. Went through the beer pretty quick, each one making me feel like more shit than the last. And then I just … decided I was done. I figured if I did it there it could look like an accident. I didn’t want the others to know that I … I didn’t want them to think it was their fault. They had all done so much for me. I didn’t want them to blame themselves that I was too much of a piece of shit to have a happy life. Gave a good speech too, told off every person who ever wronged me, called God a punk ass bitch for not being able to kill me himself, and then I just … I just jumped. Didn’t take me long to pass out under there. Thought it was the end. But when I opened my eyes, I was coughing out my lungs on the beach. Don’t really know how. I thought that … doesn’t matter. I wasted as hell and barely conscious so I probably just imagined it. But I was alive. Didn’t know why, but I just decided to not try again.”

Nines froze as he heard Gavin explain what had happened. He was the one who had saved Gavin then, but Gavin didn’t remember. Nines did his best to remain calm, but suddenly all the possibilities of what could have happened if he wasn’t there that night started to flood his brain. He didn’t realize how close he was to losing Gavin forever.

“In the nightmare,” Gavin continued, snapping Nines out of his thoughts, “I don’t wash up on the beach. I just drown, except I’m awake and I see everything. It really sucks, honestly. I’ve had it every night since that day. You’d think I’d be used to it by now but…” Gavin trailed off.

Nines rested his head on top of Gavin’s. He wanted to reach out for Gavin’s hand but the grip on his wrist seemed to be the only thing grounding Gavin in the moment.

“For the record,” Nines softly said into Gavin’s hair, “I’m very glad that you’re here. And I don’t know if this is presumptive of me, but I’d say that things have gotten better for you in the past few months, at least a little bit.”

He felt Gavin smile into his shoulder.

“Yeah, I guess it has.”

A steady silence fell between them. Gavin seemed to have calmed down a lot more now. Nines was beginning to drift off again when suddenly Gavin broke the silence with, “Tell me more about yourself.”

“What about?”

“I don’t know just- feel kinda weird being the only one info-dumping about my tragic backstory. I want to hear about you.”

“I- there’s not much to say,” Nines struggled on how to word things without revealing his secret, “I didn’t really have a normal upbringing. I don’t remember my parents. My brother does a little, but we don’t talk about them much. We were taken in by this woman, Amanda, she was … she was horrible to put it plainly. She was extremely strict and had us spend every hour of every day working. She wanted us to be these perfect kids and be able to do anything. Everything we did was measured and evaluated. She kept calculating us, determining who was the best between us, making us compete against each other. I was stronger, faster, and smarter than Connor and she just kept drilling into my head that I couldn’t ever let him beat me. And she just kept drilling into him that he had to beat me. We weren’t allowed to be friends or even siblings; we had to be rivals in everything.

“When we didn’t meet her expectations, she punished us. It was bad, but we didn’t know anything else. It was just that for so long that we didn’t know anything else but her. I never realized how wrong everything was because I hadn’t known anything else. And then one day, Connor left. Amanda didn’t take it very well. She blamed me for him leaving. She … she became even worse with him gone. That’s when I started to realize how fucked everything with her was. I was too scared to run like Connor did though, so I just endured it. And then one day, he came back. He changed everything. He … freed me from her. She was gone and I was finally allowed to just live.

“Connor and I have tried making amends. We both did horrible things to each other because of her and we both feel extremely guilty for it. But we’re just … too different I guess. We’d do anything for each other, but I don’t know if we even like each other. That period of time, when he left me behind? It was horrible. Really horrible. And it’s hard to forget about that. And I know he’s had years of being seen as inferior to me, which gives him more than enough reason to hate me. We got into a big fight, right before I came here. And I don’t know, I guess I just realized that there wasn’t much left for me back home except constant reminders of all the bad I had done.” Nines sighed. He had told Ada some of the details before, but this was the first time he laid out everything to someone. The resentment he had for Connor abandoning him, the constant abuse both of them suffered at the hands of Amanda, it was all stuff he tried to ignore as much as possible. But telling Gavin … felt good.

“For the record, I think you’re a really good person,” Gavin softly responded.

“I think you are one too, Gavin.”

Eventually, he had fallen back asleep. And even though he woke up with a sore neck and back from the awkward sleeping position, he was happier than normal. Gavin trusted him with something important and he realized that he trusted Gavin just as much back. But in the aftermath of last night, there was a bit of uneasiness between them. They didn’t really know where to go from there. Nines didn’t know when the appropriate time for him to leave was and he couldn’t help but feel like the previous night’s events had shifted their relationship.

Luckily, he didn’t have to worry too much because soon in the morning, Gavin was inviting him to come somewhere from him.

“There’s this spot, it overlooks the ocean and it’s really cool. Not a lot of people know about it, you have to see it at least once.”

And then they were in Gavin’s car, listening to some rock music from the 2000s, driving along by the beach. They passed the cove and Gavin went down this dirt path which led to this overhang overlooking the ocean. They both got out of the car and went to go sit on the hood. There were some clouds forming in the sky and there looked to be a storm brewing on the horizons. The view from there was impeccable.

“Nice view, huh?” Gavin asked while grabbing a cigarette out from his pocket.

“Yes, it is,” Nines replied though he was only partially referring to the scenery.

“I used to come here a lot to just get away from shit. I haven’t been here in a bit. I also haven’t ever brought someone here with me before, not even Tina.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“I-” Gavin sighed and took another drag from his cigarette, “I care about you, Nines. A lot, okay? If it wasn’t already obvious as hell before, now it sure is.” Gavin braced himself like he was anticipating rejection.

“I care about you too, Gavin. I always have.”

Gavin smiled a bit. “You know, at first I was just annoyed at Tina trying to set me up with someone else. Like just cause they’re single, hot, and in my age range, doesn’t mean I’m into them. And she was being so obvious about it, always sticking us next to each other. It was really fucking awkward most of the time. When we were at the boardwalk, I knew she and the others purposefully ditched us. I just kinda gave up and decided to go along with it. Figured you’d leave once you’d figure out what a piece of shit I am but I knew Tina was gonna keep forcing us together until that happened, so might as well have a bit of fun first. For some reason, you didn’t leave.”

“Gavin, you’re a much better person than you give yourself credit for,” Nines reassured, moving closer to him.

“Yeah, well there’s a long line of people out there who’d disagree with you.”

“Well, I can’t help that they’re wrong,” Nines shrugged and smiled loosely. He thought his heart would explode out of his chest.

Gavin reached out for Nines’ hand. Instead of intertwining their fingers, he simply softly held Nines’ hand out in front of him, carefully running his thumb across Nines’ palm, like he was having to confirm that Nines was really standing in front of him. The cold wind bit at Nines’ face, but frankly he didn’t care. He felt the ocean mist on his face, or was it the rain from the incoming storm? But he quite frankly wasn’t paying attention to it. All he was focused on was the man standing in front of him. He took his other hand and used it to gently cup Gavin’s face. He leaned into the touch, smiling softly. They made eye contact and Nines was filled with so many emotions as he stared into the soft green eyes in front of him. Nines leaned in for the kiss.

The pain was like a hundred daggers stabbing him at once. He jolted back with pain suddenly, only centimeters from Gavin’s lips. He grabbed at his head as the world started spinning.

“Nines? Are you okay?” Gavin asked, voice full of concern.

“I-” Nines started before he was hit with another wave of pain. He felt like someone was trying to rip his head in half, “fuck.”

Nines looked at the incoming storm and suddenly the pieces all began to fit. This pain, he knew this pain. The reinforcements he had given Connor’s banishment spell, they were being ripped apart. Connor was right: Amanda was coming back. Except for this time, Connor was there on his own. And Nines knew as much pain as was in having his spells ripped apart, what Connor was experiencing right now was a hundred times worse.

The third wave of pain struck, somehow worse than the others. There were five levels he had on the spell that she had to get through. Maybe she wouldn’t make it all the way. He could hear Gavin start to freak out. Nines wanted to reassure him that it was fine, that it was mainly psychic damage and he probably wouldn’t die. But the pain made everything swim around him and all he could say was a string of unfiltered curses.

The fourth wave struck. Only one more. Then she was in. Then everything the revolution stood for, everything piece of progress they made would be lost. If Amanda didn’t straight up kill Connor, he would suffer greatly under her hand, everyone would, probably worse than they had before.

Nines tried to focus on the man worrying about him at his side. Gavin … Gavin meant a lot to him. He had never felt like he felt towards Gavin before. He didn’t know if it was love, but it was sure as hell close. This would be the last time he would be able to see Gavin if he left now. He didn’t want that. But staying? Knowing he had abandoned his brother and everyone he had ever known to die and suffer at the hands of a woman he could potentially save them from? He couldn’t live with that. There was enough blood on his hands from before the revolution, he didn’t need anymore. 

He grabbed Gavin’s arm, probably much harder than he intended. He looked so worried, so scared. Nines could feel his heart breaking in his chest as he tried to get one last look at him.

“Gavin,” Nines gasped, “I’m sorry.”

“Fuck, Nines. We need to like get you to like a hospital, like right now.”

Nines shook his head. “No, it’s-,” but he was cut off again by the fifth and final wave of pain as the energy he had poured into the spell was being ripped apart and decimated. She was in, and he couldn’t keep stalling the inevitable, “I have to go,” he managed to get out once the pain subsided a bit.

“Nines, wait! Where the hell are you going?” Gavin asked frantically.

But Nines was already running. The storm had kicked up more but the howling wind and freezing rain had done little to stop him. He did his best to drown out the sound of Gavin calling after him. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up to him. 

Due to his stellar sense of direction, he quickly found himself down at the cove again. He paused, only for a moment. This was it. There would be no return after this. He grabbed the locket at his neck and pulled it off with one fluid motion, tossing it to the ground. He then rushed into the ocean. 

When his merfolk form came back, the pain was worse. Probably because he was more connected to his magic in this form. But at the same time, he felt like he was finally breathing properly again. The pain was only a distraction; he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He rushed to his kingdom, far faster than any other merperson could. As he approached the underwater city, he could see that it was in other chaos. Looks like Amanda made some friends during her time away. But he ignored the calamity happening around him as he swam through the city. He had one target: Amanda.

He knew where she would be. The throne room. Hopefully, he wasn’t too late to save Connor as well. As he burst into the palace, nobody dared stopped him. If he was considered to be intimidating and scary normally, then he knew right now he must look terrifying because he was out for blood right now.

He slammed into the throne room’s doors, effectively shattering them. When he swam inside, his heart dropped. There was Connor, chained down to the floor. He looked like he had really gone through the ringer. But he was alive. Nines felt anger fuel every inch of his body as his gaze shifted upwards and he saw _ her _ . Not much had changed in her years away. Her dark magic swirled around her as she caught sight of him.

“Amanda!” he practically roared out, “This ends here!”

“Nines?” he heard Connor gasp as his brother became aware of his presence. He looked like he had seen a ghost as he stared at Nines with wide eyes.

“My, my, I knew Connor was lying when he said that you were gone. Welcome back, Nines,” Amanda smoothly replied, smiling with confidence.

“Fuck you!” Nines yelled, “I should have done this years ago!”

Nines drew upon the magic he knew fit best for this. Merpeople had plenty of physical weapons, but if one was able to summon a weapon of pure magic, that could do much more damage. It was a high-risk high reward situation. You could decimate many enemies with one, but if your opponent shattered the spell, it would be horrible for you. They were only used very strategically in normal combat. Well, fuck strategy. Nines wasn’t here for strategy. He was going to make sure that Amanda would never come back and was going to pull out all the stops in order to do so.

The Trident of Dra’kendurin was a thing of legend. The spell required to summon it was so powerful that merely attempting it would destroy most merfolk. Nines wasn’t most merfolk. He felt the weapon materialize in his hands as the crackling electric energy surrounded him. He glared at Amanda, who still had that infuriating smile on her face.

“Pretty bold, Nines. Never thought you had enough guts to assert yourself,” Amanda mused.

“Shut the fuck up! I’ve had enough of your bullshit!”

Nines went in for the attack. She tried sending some magical attacks on him, most of them hit. But that didn’t deter him for a second. His mind was laser-focused on his goal: kill Amanda. He could take some hits, those didn’t matter. When he got close enough to actually strike her with the trident, he had the next obstacle: her protection spells. No matter how hard he tried, there was an invisible wall blocking him from his goal.

“Give up yet?” Amanda smirked.

“Just getting started,” Nines growled.

He shifted his focus slightly. Instead of solely trying to gut her with the trident, he simultaneously worked on shattering her protection spells. Those were two activities that were not meant to be done at the same time as it was near impossible. But impossible wasn’t an answer Nines was accepting right now. With every slight give of the trident, the smirk on Amanda’s face turned more and more into a grimace. She became more desperate and tried different attacks on him, but he ignored that. He was running on pure rage at this point; he doubted that even death could deter him at this moment. Rage at every horrible thing Amanda had done to him. Everything she had done to Connor. Rage at Connor abandoning him. Rage at every person in the kingdom who ignored him because they weren’t comfortable being around him. Rage at North for letting him live on land, knowing he was going to have to leave everything up there and come back. Rage at Ada, Tina, Valerie, Chris, and Renae, for constantly trying to push him and Gavin closer, for making him realize how miserable he had been his whole life before without them. Rage at Gavin for not saying how he felt about Nines till right before Nines had to leave, for making him feel something he had never had to feel before. And most importantly rage at himself, for not standing up to Amanda sooner, for not putting proper effort into building a relationship with his own brother, and for letting the best thing that had ever happened to him slip away.

When the protection spells finally broke, the force Nines was pushing the trident caused both of them to be flung to the wall behind them, the trident going deep into Amanda’s gut and into the wall behind them. Nines breathed heavily as he watched her squirm in pain, satisfaction filling his chest. But then she smiled and grabbed his chin.

“Not going to go down alone …,” she muttered.

Before Nines could do anything, he felt the trident shatter in his grasp. The pain didn’t feel as bad this time. Mainly because the second it hit, he blacked out.

When Nines finally woke up again, he was in one of the healing terminals. He barely was able to turn his head slightly before he was nearly crushed with the force of his brother’s hug.

“You’re back,” Connor whispered into his chest.

“Told you that I would.”

Connor pulled back from the hug to look at Nines, his expression unreadable. “I thought you were dead,” he whispered, “I found your note and the wording- and then I couldn’t find you anywhere and nobody knew where you were. I thought I lost you.”

“I… I didn’t mean for you to worry,” Nines winced. He honestly hadn’t considered any potential misinterpretations of the note he had left. Granted, he hadn’t been thinking much when he wrote it.

“Yeah, well I did. I seriously thought that I’d never see you again. When Amanda came back, I just gave up. I didn’t see any point in fighting a battle I knew I couldn’t win.”

“Is she dead?”

“Yup. After you lost consciousness, she soon faded away. Markus and his team were able to eliminate the rest of her team.”

“Good,” Nines responded. At least she was gone now.

“Where the hell were you?”

“I…,” Nines really didn’t know how he was going to tell Connor he had been living on land, something that was extremely illegal, “I met someone.”

“What? You just decide to run away and make me think that you’re dead for years just cause you met someone?”

“No, that’s-,” Nines winced, “He- he was a human.”

“A human?”

Nines nodded. “I’ve been living on land for the past six months because I fell in love with a human.”

Connor pinched his brow. “You better be fucking with me right now.”

“Why the hell would I lie about this?”

“I don’t know, maybe because that would mean you’ve broken the oldest and most archaic rule of our people? What the hell were you thinking? You’ve heard the stories about humans! They’re monsters! Each and every one of them!”

“No, they’re not!” Nines bit back, “Yeah there are some shitty people there, but there’s a lot of good there too! Nice people who will help you out for absolutely nothing in return. People who do their damnedest to make you a part of their lives. People who care about you.”

“I cannot believe this.”

“What? That I was willing to break the law? Or that I could care about someone?”

“No, Nines, that’s- that’s not it. If it was literally any other situation, I would be happy that you found someone. But a human? Really? Couldn’t it have been a merperson?”

“No, it couldn’t. He … he was it for me. I don’t think I’ll ever feel that again,” Nines tried to push back the feeling gnawing at his gut but to no avail. “Doesn’t matter anymore though, I lost him.”

There was a tense silence as Connor tried to process what Nines was saying.

“How?” Connor finally asked, “How did you live up with the humans?”

“I got some help,” Nines explained, “North, she has some magic that lets you live on land.”

“You mean to tell me that North knew where you were the entire time? And she didn’t say anything?”

“It’s not her fault. I made her swear under an Oath of Rs’yhindor that she would keep all information about me leaving and why I went completely secret. I knew you would try to stop me if you found out what I was planning.”

“Of course I would have tried to stop you! You could have died!”

Nines smiled weakly. “I came far closer to dying within the first hour of me returning to the water than I did in the entire six months I lived on land.”

“I-,” Connor put his head in his hands, “I need to go clear my head. This is all just too much for me.”

Connor made his way to the door before stopping and looking back.

“I missed you a lot,” he admitted.

“Yeah, Con, I missed you too.”

He had been ordered to stay put in the healing terminal for a long time. Amanda had really done a number on him. A couple of days after Connor had visited, North showed up.

“Land was everything you hoped it to be?” she asked, smiling.

“And more,” Nines sincerely responded.

“That’s good. How did things go with your Gavin?”

“We-” Nines swallowed down hard, “We didn’t have enough time.”

North solemnly nodded. “I know what that’s like.”

“Ada misses you,” Nines informed her, “She tried to hide it, but I could tell that she still cares a lot about you.”

North smiled bittersweetly. “I miss her too.”

There was a beat of silence.

“How do you move on, North? I can’t get him out of my head.”

North grabbed Nines’ hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “I don’t know. Never figured it out myself.”

“I guess we have a lot more in common than I thought.”

“Guess we do.”

Once Nines was released from the healing terminal, he tried to not go to the surface. Connor was still upset at him going to the surface, but he was coming around. But try as he might, Nines could not get Gavin out of his head. He had occupied his mind every free second since he woke up after the attack. So it wasn’t long before he found himself sneaking out again to the cove. He didn’t know why. Maybe seeing Gavin from a distance would give him the closure he wanted.

When he approached the cove, he saw him, sitting alone on the beach. It was almost so similar to their first meeting over six months ago. Nines didn’t know what it was inside of him, but he threw caution to the wind and did little to hide. He just wanted one good last look at Gavin before he left. But when Gavin turned to his direction, Nines shot himself back to the water, only peaking slightly above the surface, well hidden by the rocks.

“Nines?” Gavin called out, “Was that you?”

Nines froze in place. Gavin couldn’t see him like this. It would just be better if Nines swam away and never came back.

But he didn’t.

“Nines? I know you’re there. You don’t have to hide. I- I know what you are.”

Nines held his breath. What was Gavin talking about?

“I found your necklace after you ran off. I looked everywhere for you. Eventually, I ended up here. I saw the necklace washed up on the ground. I knew it was yours, never saw you without it. I knew something was really wrong. I went to Ada to ask what happened. She didn’t know what, but when I showed her your necklace, she realized what happened and told me everything.

“I mean, a mermaid, huh? Or merfolk, merperson, whatever Ada said the word was. It was pretty weird, I’ll admit. I honestly thought she was fucking with me at first. But then, there was just so much stuff she had about you guys. And like all the things about you that I thought were super weird or off, just started making sense.

“It was you, who saved me that one night, wasn’t it? I could barely see you that night because of everything that had happened, but I could vaguely see you. And then suddenly, bam! You were completely gone. I honestly thought I had hallucinated you, but then when I saw you in Ada’s store that one day, it was like seeing a ghost. Then you denied us meeting before, so I figured that it was really a hallucination and I was just being weird about it. But it wasn’t, was it? You saved my life.

“God, Nines, I really need you, okay? I knew you mattered a lot to me but these past couple weeks with you just suddenly gone have been hell. Listen, I can make this merperson shit work, okay? I’ll buy a house located right next to the water or something, I don’t know. But please, Nines, I know you’re listening to me. I don’t want to have to go back to not having you in my life. Come back to me, please.”

Nines had to keep his hand pressed firmly on his mouth to keep his choked sobs from spilling. He never figured out if crying was a distinctly human trait before because when you live in the ocean, saltwater coming out of your eyes is impossible to notice. But right now, the tears pouring from his eyes was a sign that it definitely wasn’t a unique trait to them. 

He wanted to go to Gavin, he really did, but he couldn’t. Nines had plenty of time to think in the past few weeks. Gavin should find a human that he wouldn’t have to deal with them being some half-fish hybrid. Gavin deserved better than what Nines could give. So he stayed behind the rock.

“Fine,” Gavin sighed, “If that won’t work, plan B it is then.”

Nines peaked out from behind his rock only to see much to his horror that Gavin had moved to those rocks he had jumped off from last time. Gavin stood at the end rock and looked in Nines’ general direction.

“Last chance Nines,” Gavin declared, “Please just come out.”

There were two conflicting voices in his head. One screaming at him to go to Gavin, one screaming at him to swim away and never come back. And much like the last time he had a major internal conflict, he froze. When Nines didn’t pop out from behind the rocks, Gavin sighed.

“Here goes nothing,” he said and then jumped into the water.

The voice screaming at him to go to Gavin won the battle before Gavin had even hit the water. Nines shot himself like a torpedo to Gavin’s location. It wasn’t hard to find the man and grab him, dragging him to shore. It was easier this time than the last. The waves weren’t as strong and Gavin wasn’t hanging limp in his arms like before. Finally, Nines was able to pull Gavin onto the shore where he immediately started coughing up the water in his lungs.

“Of all the idiotic, reckless, stupid things-” Nines immediately started lecturing, not even bothering to try to cloak the anxiety in his voice.

“Got you to come out, didn’t it?” Gavin replied with a cheeky grin in between coughs.

“You could have died!”

“I didn’t though, did I?”

“You are such an idiot,” Nines complained, letting himself fall onto Gavin’s chest, “I hate you.”

Gavin ran a hand through Nines’ hair. “Nah, I know you love me.”

Nines didn’t correct him and instead wrapped his arms around Gavin, burying his face in the crook of his neck.

“Why didn’t you come out at first? I know you heard everything.”

“I thought that you would be better off without me.”

“The fuck makes you think that? Shit, Nines, you’re like one of the best things that have ever happened to me.”

“But I’m not- I’m not a human. And I can’t just completely abandon my life back home again.”

Gavin grabbed Nines’ face and held it in front of his own.

“Nines, look at me. I do not give a single flying fuck on whether you’re a human or not. I fell for you, I don’t give a fuck if that means you’ve got two legs or a dorsal fin. That shit doesn’t matter to me. As long as I have you, I’m happy. And fuck, I mean you’ve got shark teeth. That’s badass. And hot.”

Nines moved his hands so they were cupping Gavin’s face.

“I missed you so much,” Nines whispered breathlessly as he looked at the man beneath him.

“I missed you too, fish sticks.”

“Oh god, you’re not going to start calling seafood-based names, are you?”

“You can bet your ass that I will, Aquaman.”

Nines rolled his eyes, but he leaned in and Gavin met him halfway. The kiss was salty from the water, but that didn’t stop either of them from going all out in the kiss. Nines wondered how he had survived so long without this. Kissing Gavin was his new oxygen; Nines didn’t think he could live without it now that he tried it. It felt like his whole body was burning on fire. Everything was so hot, it was like it had been set on fire. Almost felt like when-

“Hey, babe?” Gavin managed to get out in the breaks between the kisses, “your legs-”

“I don’t have legs anymore, Gavin,” Nines reminded him as he continued on his mission to keep kissing Gavin’s face until his lips fell off.

“Uh, you sure about that?” Gavin asked.

“Of course, I am,” Nines retorted, somewhat annoyed that he was being interrupted from his very important mission, “See, it’s just my- oh-”

Because when Nines turned around to prove to Gavin that he was being ridiculous, he was not greeted by his tail. Instead there were two very human legs sticking out under him. Quickly, he looked at the rest of himself only to see all his other merperson features were missing too.

“I told you.”

“I don’t-” Nines started before he suddenly remembered what North told him the other way to become a human was. Being kissed by a human who truly loved you. Nines had almost completely forgotten about that. He smiled and grabbed Gavin’s face again in order to press another kiss on his lips. “Forgot there was another way to become a human.”

“I’m just going to say that I’m a huge fan of this method,” Gavin smiled.

“Yeah, me too.”

“Come on, Connor, stop overthinking things.”

It had been a week since Nines had kissed Gavin and got the ability to shift between the two forms. Connor had admittedly not liked the whole ordeal very much. But Nines found that his brother was a lot more willing to accept the fact that Nines had a human lover when faced with the whole “true love’s kiss” ordeal. So Nines was going to introduce his brother to his boyfriend and hope that the fact that Connor had only bothered to learn one phrase in English would keep them from tearing out each other’s throats.

“I’m not overthinking things, I am thinking about them at a perfectly reasonable amount. Not only are you dragging me up to the human world for the first time, but I am also meeting my little brother’s boyfriend for the first time who also happens to be a giant scary monster.”

Nines snorts. “Connor, both of us are bigger than Gavin. Even in my human form, I’m still taller than him.”

“Yeah well I haven’t forgotten all those stories about twenty feet tall humans. This guy may be in love with you or something, but I’ve got to make sure I can beat him in a fight if he ever breaks your heart.”

Nines rolled his eyes. “I am so glad that you two will be unable to communicate.”

“Cut me some slack. I’m trying to be an older brother. This is the first time you’ve ever gone after someone, human or not.”

“Yeah, well, will I get to threaten your romantic partners with violence too?”

“We’re not talking about me right now,” Connor huffed.

Nines poked his head over the rocks at the sound of someone coming. Seeing it was Gavin and Ada, he smiled and pulled himself up onto the rocks. He shook the water off his tail and as the water droplets flew off, it became two legs again. The parts also began fading into their human counterparts as the water dripped off. Once he was mainly human, he got up and rushed over to Gavin, who had already made his way halfway down the row of rocks. Once they were close enough, Gavin pulled him into a hug before pressing a searing kiss on his lips.

“Missed ya, fish face.”

“Missed you too.”

Nines only broke away so he could give Ada a hug. He hadn’t seen her since before he went to Gavin’s house for that movie marathon and had missed her terribly. They were still trying to figure out the best to explain to the others the whole situation so they decided to put off the Connor introduction for them.

“Here, let me introduce you to Connor,” Nines stated as he led the two of them over to where his brother had been waiting.

Connor cautiously poked his head out from the water, clearly still apprehensive about the whole concept of humans. He cleared his throat so he could say the one English line he had practiced.

“Hello, my name is Connor,” he carefully said, doing his best to articulate it perfectly.

“Yup, you guys are related,” Gavin laughed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nines asked, raising an eyebrow.

“That robotic delivery. The first few months I knew you, you sounded more robot than human. Still do to be honest,” Gavin replied with a smirk as he slipped his arm around Nines’ waist and pressed a kiss on his jaw.

“What are you guys talking about?” Connor asked, switching back to the merfolk language with his eyes narrowed in confusion.

“They’re just flirting,” Ada explained also in the merfolk language.

“Oh! You must be Ada, right?”

“That would be me.”

“Speaking of Ada,” Nines cut in, “Connor and I have a surprise for you.” Before Ada was able to ask them what was going on, Nines gave the signal whistle and North popped out of the spot she had been hiding in while they were waiting.

Immediately, Ada’s eyes widened as she took in the mermaid in front of her. She then rushed into the water to be with her and North immediately swam over to her. The two embraced and North twirled Ada around. The two only broke away to get a better look at each other and to tell each other how much they had missed each other. Nines smiled to himself. He had never seen either woman so happy before as they began to catch up on everything they had missed from each other.

The rest of the day was spent with Connor trying to threaten Gavin and failing, Connor complaining when everyone spoke English and Gavin complaining when everyone spoke in the merfolk language, Ada and Connor becoming fast friends, and Nines doing his new favorite hobby: kissing Gavin.

Gavin was sitting behind him, arms wrapped around Nines’ torso, face buried in his neck, while Connor, Ada, and North were talking about some social gossip. Nines reached for one of Gavin’s hands and did what he had been wanting to do for so long and intertwined their fingers. He could feel Gavin’s smile at the action. Gavin moved the back of Nines’ hand up to his lips, placing a soft kiss on it.

“I love you,” Gavin whispered in Nines’ ear before pressing another kiss on his cheek.

“I love you too,” Nines replied smiling.

And at that moment, Nines felt the happiest and most at peace he ever had in his life.

**Author's Note:**

> In a very real sense, this was a 27k Reed900 one-shot. In a much realer sense, this was a look into the subplot of the 100k+ slow burn Ada/North fic that exists only in my head. Perhaps one day I'll write it, but it'll be a lot more of just domestic lesbians living by the beach, consumed by yearning and too afraid to say anything about their true feelings. If you'd at least like the details about that fic which may or may not happened someday, hit me up and I will oblige and dump as much of the Ada/North storyline on y'all as you want I love that ship so much.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you liked it. This whole art fest has been such a joy and a blessing to be able to take part in. I'm absolutely loving everyone's contributions. Y'all are amazing and talented and y'all make me cry (especially on Amnesia day oh lord y'all got me). 22 more days left!!! Ideally, I'll have three more fics up in that time, one multichapter and two one-shots, but in all honesty, who knows? I did the College AU like three days before I posted it so may be more.
> 
> Yell at me on Tumblr @chaotic-bi-incarnate where I've got some very rough sketches based on this that I posted as well.
> 
> Feel free to comment, kudos, all that jazz. Hope y'all had as much fun reading as I had writing this boy.


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